Parachutist 2 Our New World
by Camilla10
Summary: 1945. WWII has ended and Edward Masen, the parachutist turned vampire, brings his human bride to the US, to live with Carlisle's family. What new dangers will they face, will the Volturi discover them? NOMINATED FOR THE EMERGING SWAN AWARDS 2011
1. Chapter 1

**Parachutist 2 – Our new world**

Summary

This is The Parachutist' sequel.

It is the summer of 1945 and the war in Europe has ended. Despite his transformation in a vampire, Edward has found his love again, has prevailed over his bloodlust and they have married. Now he is going back to America with his human bride, where they'll join Carlisle's family. How will be their life with the Cullens, when will it be the right moment for Bella's transformation? Will the Volturi discover them, will they face new dangers?

This story is rated NC 17, as there will be sex and some violence. I am not going to put warnings on individual chapters. If you are under age you should not be reading it.

A/N

So, I got here at least! In the meanwhile I had to deal with a lot of RL events, some sad, some happy. My dear mother in law died a year ago, with a long aftermath of practicalities to deal with and in December I became a grandmother.

Stephenie Mayer owns the Twilight characters, but this AU plot is mine.

My heartfelt thanks go first of all to Serendipitous and her husband, then to Jmolly, Sebastien Robichaud, Philadelphic and Maniac Motherland. This side of the Atlantic I owe to Raum, Alberto B. and many other friends.

You really should read The Parachutist, if you haven't. However, I want to be nice, therefore I now give the floor to Carlisle, who will provide you with a recap of what happened before ….

And so it begins…

Chapter 1 - Prologue

**Carlisle**

July 1945

I linger for a while in the small Roman airport lounge. On the second floor there is a terrace from which one can see departures and landings. It is an entertainment and families take the kids to look at planes but, everybody is giving me a wide berth. I am not pleasing to the eye. The fake scars I wear on my face prevent my skin from sparkling under the sun and have allowed for me to contribute my skills as a military surgeon during the war that has just ended, at least in Europe. I look at the vanishing plane taking my new children to the States. I am not Edward's sire and, when Bella will be ready to join her husband in immortality, he will be the one to transform her. He is strong enough. But of course it is not the exchange of blood and venom that makes us a family. Alice too, my beloved pixie, was not changed by me, nor was her husband. It is our willingness to stay together, to support each other, to resist the horrific call of our nature, it is the belief that we have choices, that our physical reality does not define us totally and that we are capable of friendship and affection … that is what makes of us a family and not a coven.

The love I feel for Edward is now not different from the feelings I have for my other sons and daughters. It is, in a sense, even stronger, because I thought he was gone forever but he found me again.

I met him in 1943, when he was still human, a 23 year-old parachutist back from the hard battle the 509th had fought in Avellino. He brought to my hospital a wounded comrade, and in the following days showed himself to be a good friend to him, despite the fact that they were quite different from each other, culturally and socially. I liked him and took the opportunity to know him better, dispensing with formalities and military rank. What I saw pleased me. He studied music and was an accomplished pianist, but the death of his parents, for which he felt guilty, had made him forsake music; soon after Pearl Harbor he joined the Armed Forces. As he was already parachuting for sport, to become a paratrooper was a logical consequence.

Ironically enough, in the light of what happened to him afterward, he hated hand to hand combat, where it is often necessary to use a knife and spill blood. Therefore he feared to be perceived as a coward. I wonder now if this quality was the one thing that allowed him to rein in his blood lust quite soon after he was turned

In any case, to help him regaining confidence in himself, I had the opportunity to recommend him for a OSS secret mission in Northern Italy and I did it, little knowing that I was sealing his fate.

Before I had left for the war, volunteering for the Army Medical Services, Alice had told me that I could be coming back with another sibling. Her vision changed continuously, so she could not be sure. Once she even Saw that he would not be alone, but that was too blurred. She described somebody much like Edward and, when I met him in Salerno, I wondered if he could be the one. Obviously, I thought that he would arrive at my hospital wounded in action and on the verge of death, and then I would have to make a decision, doing something I don't do lightly. I did not wish such a destiny for him, and I thought that the mission would hopefully preserve his life. But, of course, you can't bet against Alice.

So he left to be parachuted on the Appennini mountains near Bologna, to bring to a partisans' Brigade the transceiver radio they sorely needed.

I met him again less than four months after he had left, a night when I was hunting in the Royal reserve of Castelporziano. The Allies had landed in Anzio in January and had not progressed a step toward Rome, as German resistance seemed unbreakable. The person who confronted me in that forest was no longer human. Edward had been turned and was now a newborn vampire with an extraordinary gift. He could read minds; that was the reason why two Volturi guards had changed him: he was meant for Aro's collection of gifted immortals. A chance encounter between him, Eleazar and the two guards, when Edward was going back to the American Army, caused this to happen. The Volturi plan backfired, though. Talented, strong and enraged, Edward was able to destroy the two vampires who had made him one of us.

He told me that he had had a glimpse of my mind while still human, as he already was subject to random telepathy episodes and he had seen me recalling a time I was hunting deer. Now, having been turned, he realized I might be a vampire too. Horrified by the need to kill and feed on humans, he was in fact looking for me, to understand better about vampirism and if it was really possible for us to abstain from human blood. He had already given in to the urge, and, loathing his behavior, had tried to kill himself. When cyanide proved useless, he had thought to expose himself in full sunlight near Volterra, so that the Volturi could take him down.

I explained to him our alternative lifestyle and invited him to join my family. He tried hunting animals and was able to spare the life of a man he had happened on but, eventually, he made another choice. He drained two German soldiers who were poaching in the Royal reserve and he decided to continue fighting his war with other means, but limiting his feeding to the enemies he had been sent in Italy to kill.

We separated after Edward made a vague promise to look for me after the war. I hoped he would be ready then to become a 'vegetarian', like me and my family, but I thought that I would not see him again. Drinking human blood is natural for us, and addictive, therefore to abstain would become impossible, after a while. I was wrong, of course.

In May 1945 the war in Italy had ended, and I was preparing to leave both my hospital in Bologna and the Army, going finally back to Esme, my children and my usual existence, when an Italian girl asked to speak with me. She was a pretty brunette with a Jewish surname, Isabella Finzi. She told me that she has be sent by Lt. Edward Masen, who wanted to see me, but could not move around, due to the sun …

I was astonished. Here was this human who knew the truth about Edward … and about me too, obviously, something for which the Volturi would administer deadly punishment, were they aware of it.

The same afternoon I went to the address she had given me and there was Edward, his eyes as golden as mine.

I touched his arm, and after a second, we embraced. He was lost and he had come back to me.

He told me that, after leaving Castelporziano, he had returned to the Appennini, having decided that the best thing he could do was to help the Partisans in their struggle against the Nazis and the Fascist Militia. He hunted animals to be always well sated when he interacted with humans, but he also preyed on Germans as he had decided to, making their bodies disappear in a subterranean pit he had excavated, as he had to protect the secret and could not kill them openly.

This went on till a fateful day when he drained a soldier of the Reich to discover, immediately after, that his victim was a honest man who loathed Hitler even more than Edward did. He finally realized that what he was doing had nothing to do with the war and his activities to help the Resistance, he was doing it just for the pleasure of it. Full of horror for what he had become, he swore that he would stop killing men for their blood, and managed to be true to his promise.

This, however, did not explain the human girl he was living with and who knew that he was a vampire.

"I met Bella at the farm where I stayed hidden for some months after my drop in Northern Italy," he told me. "She is a Jew whom the farmer kept concealed too. Last March, he paid with his life for it. Anyway, we fell in love and planned to marry after the war. I didn't tell you about her in Castelporziano, because just naming her was too painful. I had been turned and I thought I had lost her forever. But… but things went differently and I was able to save her from deportation after the Militia ransacked the farm and took her. We have been together since and I told her everything. I did it to explain why I could not be true to my promises. I owed her that, and I knew she would not betray my secret but… but Bella is very determined. She is prepared to marry a vampire, so I will marry her. It is madness, probably, but I can't deny her anything anymore."

I realized then that they were lovers, that they were intimate, a vampire and a human. His self-control was astonishing and it was impossible to keep questions out of my mind. Edward was quite frank with me, admitting that the first time they had kissed he had almost killed her, but that eventually they had found a way to be together with no risks and now he did not even feel bloodlust when he was with her.

This would not save them from the Volturi's wrath, obviously, so the issue of her change came up next. In fact, they already had discussed it, without coming to any decision. Edward hated the idea, being fully prepared to be with her for her natural lifespan, and then to seek his own end. Bella, on the contrary, wanted to be with him forever, but had no clear understanding of what becoming a vampire would entail. Eventually they postponed the issue, their priority being to marry and go back to the United States.

Now Edward, who had gone along with a fake identity and was considered to be missing in action, needed to resurface and get his military discharge, as he didn't want to be considered a deserter and also wanted to claim the substantial inheritance he had in Philadelphia. But to go back to the army, even for a short time, was obviously impossible.

On this, I was able to help. I made up a fake diagnosis of Porphyria, a latent hereditary condition that can be triggered by exposure to some substances. In his case it was lead, according to the story we had fabricated. It was supported by the largely forged report of an Army Medical Commission. On the strength of it, I was able to convince the OSS officer who had sent Edward on the mission which had cost his health, to take the necessary steps to get him an easy discharge, and help his soon-to-be wife to obtain a visa for the United States

All this took some weeks to arrange, and in the meanwhile Bella had to solve her own bureaucratic hassles, namely to retrieve her own inheritance, her parents having been killed by the fascist Militia, and to get emancipated by Court, as she was not yet 21.

The human girl was very special, I saw it from the first moment I met her, but what happened afterward convinced me that Edward's mate would be a precious addition to my family. She was mature, brave, strong, very bright, and she had also an uncommon moral fiber.

When the couple was in Rome, waiting to have the paperwork completed and enjoying a vacation of sorts, they had the misfortune to encounter a local vampire, a female. She was never a threat, as Edward would have been perfectly capable to take her down, in case. The point was that she killed her prey in front of them and Bella saw it. She saw for the first time the normal behavior of our kind.

After that she left Edward, asking for time, promising to return when she was ready, but clearly shattered by what she had seen. Edward passed a few days in hell, convinced that it was the end for them, that Bella would never accept him now, that horror and disgust had overwhelmed her.

But he had not read her correctly. When Bella came back, and they had an anguished confrontation, it dawned on him that Bella loved him, and wanted to become like him, but was terrified of becoming a murderer.

"When I am turned, "she had told him crying "promise me, that you will kill me before I kill somebody! Because, you see, you were changed against your will, so you really weren't responsible for what you did, but I am **choosing** to become a vampire, so if I do kill somebody, I will be fully responsible of this evil. I cannot fail, not even once…"

"She does not believe that there are different species, with different rules." Edward told me afterwards. "Evidently she believes that there are only persons, whatever they are, and they can and should make their choices according to a code of behavior that is universal and applies to everybody who has free will and a reasoning mind."

I found in Bella a kindred spirit, and was fascinated by her. I was also able to assuage her fears, saying that she first had to live with my family for a while and see that indeed it was possible to be vampires and not murderers. This unless the Volturi discover her, because in such a case she will have to be changed swiftly - something that Alice will give us early warning of.

Otherwise, she can take her time and decide only when she'll feel confident and ready. The change will happen in a place very far from humans, and Edward and all the family will help her to pass safely through her newborn stage. She decided to trust us and the crisis was averted. However, I have the feeling that, for Edward, the idea of her transformation is deeply disturbing, whatever his rational mind tells him. So he too needs to get adjusted to the idea. Therefore, both need time.

A few days ago Edward and Bella married in the American Consulate in Rome and now they have left for New York, where Esme and my children are going to meet them.

I also am about to leave Italy and the Army and soon I'll be joining them. Frankly, I can barely wait.

Endnote

To get you into the plot I'll submit the next chapter as soon as this is out. Maybe it is too early to ask for a review, but I would so much know who is reading… The sequel took me forever to write, due to the amount of research necessary and the need to make it interesting, with no war anymore to give an exciting background. I did my best.


	2. Chapter 2  Michigan

**Parachutist 2 – Our New World**

Chapter 2 Michigan

A/N If you liked The Parachutist, you have still a few days to vote for it. It is up for the Shimmer Award and precisely the Adonis Award (Best Use of Edward), along with two other stories of mine:_Confession_ for the Blood Award (Best Horror/Suspense), _Eros and Psyche_ for the Pawn Award (Best Post- Breaking Dawn). Some of my favorite authors are also running: Jmolly, Raum, RedSummer and many others. http:/shimmerawards(.)blogspot(.)com/

Like Bella, I am in the unknown: America in the '40s! I know zilch. This chapter could not have been written without the help of Serendipitous, her kind husband, and Philadelphic. Any mistake is mine.

_Previously, in The Parachutist (Edward's POV):_

_The plane has landed. New York, La Guardia Airport. So here I am, back in America, and not alone. A married vampire, by God. It is so weird that is even hilarious…_

…_. I spot them almost immediately. Three vampires are waiting for us... My new family, according to Carlisle, who arranged for them to come to the airport to meet us, as he is still in Italy. I have seen them in his mind and I recognize them. The lovely woman with a sweet face and caramel colored hair is his wife Esme. The big guy with curly hair and dimples must be Emmet, and the tiny girl with black hair, Alice… is running toward us, taking my hand and Bella's in her own and almost singing to us:_

"_Bella, Edward, you are here at last!"_

**Edward**

"This is my mother Esme," Alice adds, drawing us toward them, and this is my brother Emmett." Indeed, they live their relationship as a familial one; it is clear from her words and her thoughts. Now it is Emmett who speaks:

"Come, the others are waiting for us in the parking lot, let's go, we have a long drive to Michigan." While we walk toward the exit I try to put in order the flood of thoughts that is hitting me. I need to concentrate on one mind at a time, or I'll go mad.

The little pixie's excited thoughts are warm, friendly, while she chatters, telling us that we will love the house where we will be staying … _Now that I've seen them I can predict better their future with us. Oh…_

She stops walking, her golden eyes out of focus. In her mind I see an image, that passes very quickly: Bella, more beautiful than ever, but with red eyes… then another image completely different. I see myself playing the piano… in a concert hall, by God.

She looks at me, I must wear a very surprised expression and it dawns on her.

"You saw the visions I had, didn't you? Carlisle told us of your gift."

"When?" I ask, the second vision elating, a secret dream, the other perturbing: I love Bella too much as she is now.

"Not immediately, no, but it will happen …" _This is so lovely, I can finally share with somebody, but I must also learn to block them, my visions should_ not always _be known_ …_To know something in advance can be damaging_…

"Alice, don't overwhelm him." Esme says.

I focus on her now.

So, she is the 'mother', Carlisle's mate. In her mind I see concerns about our comfort, particularly Bella's: a human girl coming willingly to live with a coven of vampires. _"Well, I would have followed Carlisle to hell if he had asked me. I wish he had claimed me when I was16_ … _no, he would never had done that, he is too noble, too unselfish... _Then her thoughts shift to the desire she has of seeing her husband again and I get a very improper flash of this much-anticipated reunion. Indeed, vampires are passionate and sensual creatures. I had refused to acknowledge this at first, but now I know it is true.

I switch my attention to Bella, and ask her if she wants to avail herself of the airport facilities before we start our journey. She does, and then we go outside. I understand that Bella would like to speak with me, but the fact that we can't exchange words privately embarrasses her. There is not much I can do about it now, so I just take her warm hand in my cold one and squeeze it lightly.

We have reached two parked cars and two other vampires standing between them. The blonde beauty must be Rosalie and the tall young man is surely Jasper.

"We left them here because, when too many of us are together, people sometimes take notice and are spooked," Emmett says with a snort. "Come, I'll introduce you." I find the big guy very restful, because there is practically no difference between his words and his thoughts.

While introductions go on, I hear Alice saying quickly to her mate:

"Jazz, don't fret, you'll be OK," while he thinks that Bella is a very enticing human girl, and he will need to hunt more frequently now. There is no malice in his thoughts, only concern, so I suppress the growl that I would have otherwise emitted. I also notice that Jasper's skin, the little of it I can see, face, neck and wrists, is covered in faint silver scars, bite scars, hopefully almost invisible to the human eye. Good, I don't need Bella to be terrified by this new 'brother' we are acquiring. Alice looks at me and says, using the vampire speech frequency:

"Edward, don't worry, Jazz is still doubting his restraint, but I know he has enough of it. I don't foresee anything bad happening."

Rosalie's thoughts are different. She is polite but she seems… bored. While all the others are curious, excited and welcoming, she is largely uninterested. Well, fine, it takes all sorts.

It is now time to get into the cars. They are a black Cadillac and a Buick wagon, amaranth, with wooden sides. Alice tells me that the Cadillac is Carlisle and Esme's. We will go in its comfy back seat; Esme will drive, with herself in the front seat. The others will take the Buick.

"I have a lovely Jaguar open tourer," she adds, "but it is a two seater, so it was useless for this trip. Rosalie's MG is also a two seater, and she is looking for a more modern one." In Rosalie's mind I see enthusiasm and a lot of thoughts about engine performance. She is a car expert, how strange.

"Do you have a car? The beautiful vampire asks me.

"Yes, I have a Ford sedan," I answer, and see in her mind that she considers it a very tame, uninteresting vehicle.

A little pissed off, I add that it was a present from my father and I would like to retrieve it with the rest of my inheritance, if it is still in the family garage in Philadelphia and it functions.

"Oh, I can have it alive and roaring in no time, when you get it," she comments and I understand that the road to her unbeating heart will have to be travelled by car.

"We have something for you two," Esme says, "but not here in the public parking. Get in and let's drive to a more private place." While driving, she tells me that the trip to Ontonagon, MI will take about 20 hours, more if we stop.

When we have crossed the Hudson River and passed Poughkeepsie we take Route 9W to Kingston. At a certain point Alice says:

"Here," and Esme takes a dirt road under the trees and parks. The other car joins us and Emmett comes out with a picnic basket. From it he takes out a Coke and a wrapped sandwich.

"Bella, this is for you, in case you are hungry. The sandwich is pastrami." Bella thanks him warmly and looks at the bottle. I realize that she has never seen a Coca Cola before, as it is not sold in Italy yet. I wonder what she will make of it, while I uncap the soda for her with a simple flick of my hard nail. She drinks, sneezes a little because of the bubbles, and comments:

"Nice, like _chinotto,_ but… better, I think." And she digs happily into her sandwich. The unfazed way Bella is reacting to five vampires is marvelous.

Emmett has not finished. Now he has taken out a big steel thermos, which he offers to me.

"We went hunting before getting to the airport," he says, "and we thought you could be a little peaked, after such a long journey, so maybe you'll like something to drink…"

_Christ, is this what I think it is? _I see his mind, and indeed it is.

"Sorry, it is only deer, but when we'll hunt in the Porcupine mountains you will be amazed at what you can find there," he adds.

I am amazed **now**, embarrassed, and at the same time moved.

"Family," Carlisle had said, "we are a family, loving each other, taking care of each other…" he was not joking.

I never drank blood where Bella could see me, obviously, also because when hunting I am very wild but, this is different… She looks at me and she smiles. Still, I go to the other side of the car, and keep my back turned. Too much is too much. But I do drink, until the thermos is empty. Well, it is not like blood fresh from a vein, but it helps. When I turn, everybody is beaming at me, and I think that maybe I am really home, more so than I thought.

We resume our journey. Esme asks if Bella would like us to find a hotel for the night, but she refuses. She says that she will easily nap in the car. Alice has Seen it and produces a light blanket from the boot. Once inside, Bella rests her head on my lap: stony as it is, she is used to it, then curls up and after a while she sleeps.

Esme drives quite fast, I think that our enhanced senses allow for speed driving and I can't wait to try it again. She hums softly and she is thinking of cooking. As a human she was a good cook and now she wonders if she remembers how to do it, because she wants to cook for Bella: American dishes that my wife has never tasted. I see that she has stocked her kitchen while waiting for our arrival. She really is a nice, caring person. In the meanwhile Alice has found a way to deflect me, and I am grateful for it. She is reciting something in a language I don't know and it's easy for me to keep her in the background.

After Buffalo we'll have to cross into Canada, as it is the easiest access to Michigan's upper peninsula. We stop before the border for gas, so that Bella can have her first American breakfast. It is dawn and I wonder what will happen with the sun. Alice, however, thinks that the day will be mostly cloudy. I also notice that both the cars have tinted windows, custom made, evidently.

Alice sits with Bella while she eats pancakes with maple syrup, another first. I am curious and I listen from the outside of the cafe. They are speaking of fashion. According to Alice, everything is going to change dramatically in 1947. She has Seen it. A French guy, Christian Dior, will launch, both in Europe and here in the States something called New Look, so it is useless that Bella buys a lot of dresses, just the minimum necessary. From what I see in Alice's mind, she and Bella might have different ideas about a minimal wardrobe. In any case, the highlights will be sloping shoulders, wasp waists obtained with a corset, and long, flowing skirts ending at mid calf. A flower look, says Alice dreamily and then takes out a piece of paper and a pencil and draws a dress for Bella. My love seems very entertained. I think about the corset and am entertained too. In fact, I can't wait for Bella to have one on and for me to peel it off… Jasper looks at me and grins. I must have projected a wave of lust and he has felt it. Yes, to live near an empath is going to be tricky…

We pass the Canadian border without problems and continue West through the towns of London, Ontario and on to Sarnia. We will be back in the US when we will cross to Port Huron, Michigan.

The journey continues. Bella naps some more. We stop for gas and her lunch while we go Northward, till we reach the ferry across the Mackinac strait. Now we have to get to Lake Superior, and that takes more hours. When the last leg of the journey is done, and Bella has had her dinner, I find that almost a full day has been needed for us to reach Ontonagon from New York's airport. When Carlisle told me that his family was living in a very secluded place, he was serious.

The Cullen's house is some 5 miles inland from the little town, well concealed in the woods. "This is a typical American Foursquare," Esme says to Bella, "the original owners mail-ordered it from Sears and then had it assembled. Can you believe it? It came on sale and we bought it just before Carlisle left for the war. There was no need to live near a hospital and he felt more relaxed knowing that we would be far from everything….

Endnotes

I know that here I am delving on something you all know too well, characters that have been described by a myriad of talented authors, so it is a challenge. Did I get them right? Please review. There is more to follow.

You will have noticed how, when Alice Sees something of the future, I am using a capital S. I got the idea from the stories by Jmolly at . She granted me permission. And her stories are wonderful (beside being vampire stories. I am not a fan of AH).

Cullen cars. This was fun to research and decide upon. Our beloved vampiric family is very into foreign cars, the snobs. (Being Italian, my family only had Fiat cars, ever). But, with a war on, imports stopped, albeit British cars could still be found. Italian and German cars would be anathema for patriotic undead Americans …So here are the vehicles:

Cadillac model 7523 - 1940 (Carlisle's. Esme drives it during the war)

Buick estate wagon – 1940 (Emmett&Rosalie's)

MG two seater (Rosalie's) 1940

Jaguar open tourer - 1936 (Alice's)

Edward's Ford de luxe Tudor sedan (1939)

Tinted car windows. They way they are manufactured today is completely different from the way they were made at the time. No plastic film applied but, rather, special glass. In a number of war chronicles there is a mention of cars (used by the Nazis in particular) with darkened windows. So it is not unrealistic to think that the Cullens found a way to get them custom made for their cars.

The "New Look" actually was born in 1947, created by Christian Dior and presented to the public in February. It was a backlash from WWII's stringency, and was typically defined by the generous use of luxurious fabrics, and a wasp-waisted silhouette with widely flared skirts.

American Foursquare. I have been introduced to this architectural feature by Serendipitous and I am very grateful to her. Some of you know them well and may even be living in one. For the others, I say that those houses are simple and essential in design, but large enough to host a big family like the Cullens'. They were a reaction to the too ornate Victorian houses.


	3. Chapter 3  No Secrets

**Parachutist 2 – Our New World**

Chapter 3 - No secrets

A/N OK, two-levels conversations with a mind reader can become boring after a while, so here is my proposal: I'll have the spoken dialogue when what the Cullens are thinking more or less mirrors their words, adding the thoughts only where relevant. I hope you are fine with it. In this story, in any case, I plan to have multiple PoVs, and even No PoV, if appropriate.

I am going to Uzbekistan with no computer, so my next update will be after August 12th. The following updates will be much faster, I promise.

_Previously_

_When I turn, everybody is beaming at me, and I think that maybe I am really home, more so than I thought. _

**Edward**

I am running deep into the Porcupine mountains. Jasper and Emmett are running with me, while the women remained at home. Alice, who, I understand, sometimes has visions and then makes them happen, or visions happen because she will push things to happen in a certain way, decided that Bella needed a bath and some female bonding, while I needed to hunt and could have a shower afterwards. "_He'd better come along. There is no way to oppose her when she is like that,"_ was the affectionate thought I saw in Jasper's mind, so I obediently went with my new brothers.

Surely, to stretch my legs after a 24 hours car ride is pleasant. I need to run more than I need to feed, in fact. I realize I am faster than they are and I am leaving them behind.

"_Boy, he can run!"_ is what I get from both their minds. I don't want to show off, so I slow down. The forest is full of scents, some completely new for me. My vampire senses have to get acquainted with my country. Italian woods smelled different, somehow.

Botany is not my strongest point, but I propose to myself to study it sometime soon. The canopy above us comprises sugar maple, which I recognize, along with red oak and green ash. For the rest I rely on my companions, who seem to know everything about it, when I ask.

"That is eastern hemlock," says Emmet "and that one is yellow birch."

Now I can smell something unpleasant

"Uh, what is that?" I ask.

"Skunk," they both answer at the same time, laughing.

"So, what's on the menu here?" I feel very light hearted, hunting in group, joking about it. It is fun.

"White tail deer is the most common big mammal, here and in all the Upper Peninsula," Jasper says, "but you can find elk, quite satisfying, gray wolves and bobcats, which are very tasty. Only, you need quite a number of them to be sated, so we seldom bother, and, of course, there are black bears.

"My best lunch in Michigan," Emmett adds, "while in the Western US there are grizzlies; those I like better than everything else…"

"He likes wrestling with them," Jasper interjects, "he still has a score to settle…"

I remember that it was a grizzly which practically ended his human life. They tell me that the Porkies are becoming a State park, which will mean regulated hunting for humans and better hunting for us.

Moving very silently we have reached a pond where a few deer are drinking. I am not that interested, until I smell something much more enticing, with a strong heartbeat. Another predator is stalking the deer. It erupts from behind the bushes and I jump on it. It is a golden feline, a cougar. I had seen the likes of it only in a zoo before, when I was a human boy.

_Mine. _

The deer scatter and run away while I wrestle the big cat to the ground. Its yellow eyes are boring into mine while it fights back, roaring, so strong as to be able to turn belly up and, with a powerful lash of its paw, to rip my clothes from neck to groin. Were I a human, I too would have been split open. Of course, now my skin is impervious to its claws and I finally manage to subjugate it. The fact that I have to struggle for my meal excites me and I sink my teeth in its furry neck with feral joy. As the warm rush of blood fills my mouth, I gulp and taste. Oh God, it is… rich, satisfying, delicious. Well, it is not human blood, and for that I am grateful, but it is surely the next best thing.

After I have drained it to the last drop, I remain seated on the ground, warmer, belly-happy, unwilling to let go of the experience.

"Edward, are you OK if we continue hunting?" Jasper asks me.

"Sure, go on, I'll wait for you, I am fine." I answer and they proceed without me. I vaguely remember that, as a human, when I had eaten a particular delicacy I didn't want to eat anything else after that, so that the taste lingered. I follow them in their minds, they are not very far away, so I hear Jasper taking down an elk and a deer and Emmett finding his black bear and making short work of it. _I surely need to refine my hunting techniques with feistier prey_, I think, while I rise up, since my companions are coming back.

And my ripped pants slid down, together with my underwear.

Shit, I am practically naked, the cougar severed my clothes to the point that they don't stay up, thus exposing my private parts. I draw the pants together with a hand, new brothers and all that, but they don't need the view, and I wonder how ridiculous I'll look trying to run while I clutch my trousers.

As Jasper approaches me, I notice that he had a small backpack on his shoulders and now is opening it. He takes out a pair of pants and offers them to me.

"Alice Saw your predicament" he says to me, smiling sheepishly. "She told me you would need them…"

I gratefully take them and go behind a tree to change. Cotton gabardine. They are not mine… Emmett is too big, Jasper too tall… maybe Carlisle's… Then it hits me: predicament my ass. Exactly, my ass and what I have up front. I am beyond embarrassed. I was concerned about showing myself in all my glory to my brothers but, my… sister must have Seen everything.

The empath is feeling my embarrassment, because he tells me:

"This is something you'll need to get adjusted to very soon. There are no secrets in our family. Alice Sees the future, I feel emotions, we all have perfect hearing, and now add yourself with your mind reading… You'll see what I mean."

While we go back to the house, I ponder about it and what it will imply. Upon arrival I take notice of the two smaller buildings flanking the foursquare. The one on the left, with a big door left open, is the garage, obviously. The other, they tell me, is the game room. In their minds I see billiard, ping pong, card tables and shelves full of game boxes. Nice. We get inside the house and we separate to clean up after the hunt. I don't particularly want to see Alice right now, so I rush upstairs.

When we arrived, Bella and I were given a quick tour of the house. In the first floor there are a living room, a dining room (I wonder who ever eats there), a spotless kitchen and the closed door of a room that I am told will be Carlisle's study, when he is back. On the second floor there are four bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Bella and I stay on the third floor, that comprises an attic, a bathroom and our bedroom. The window is a dormer, protruding from the roof.

I shower, towel off and get silently to our room. Bella is sleeping. Pity, I was hoping that… no, she must be still tired. I notice that she has laid down one of my pajamas on the bed. A sturdy bed, with a cast iron headboard. I lie down at her side, reaching out to the minds of the people in the house. In fact I hear their voices too. Esme and her daughters say that they too will hunt, but nearby and will be back soon. Emmet challenges Jasper to a game of pool, and they go to the playroom outside.

Bella stirs, and opens her eyes …

**Bella**

I float up from a pleasant dream. Edward has returned and is looking at me, laying on his side.

"Love, it is still night, you should sleep…"

No way, I am fully awake now. I light the lamp on the night stand, courtesy of our vampire hosts who know I can't see in the dark. Edward's eyes are like liquid gold, his face is very soft, relaxed. He has only the pants of his pajama on.

"How was the hunt?" I ask.

"Amazing… I… " he is still embarrassed about speaking to me in detail of his feeding.

"You what? Tell me..." I insist, cupping his face in my hands, and finding it warmer. He must have had a long hot shower.

"I took down a mountain lion, a cougar… It was quite combative, and it was very good."

So, even a puma is no challenge for a vampire. I try to imagine him wrestling the enraged feline. I would give everything to see it. He chuckles:

"It ripped my clothes apart, pants and underwear, I was half naked, but very satisfied, at the end.

Mm, half naked Edward in the forest. A rush of desire overtakes me. Of course he can smell it and his eyes darken. With a fluid movement he rolls on his back, putting me on top of him, then raises a little and leans on the headboard. My nightgown is gone, as well as his pajama pants and his hands are everywhere. Oh God, how many days since we left our flat in Rome? It has been too long.

"Your scent is driving me crazy," he says, leaning to kiss me, and then he raises his knees, a cool armchair for me to lean on. His hands slide up over my chest, caressing my hardening nipples. Passionate lips now wander down past my collarbone till they reach my breasts, kissing one, while he gently massages the other with his hand, then his mouth covers my nipple, sucking it lightly. I think I could die from the sensation, my throat moaning low and deep.

"I want you now," Edward growls and lifts me up with his hands and then sets me down on his hard manhood. I slide onto him crying my pleasure. I am now moving back and forth on his length, gently at first, than faster. The friction is glorious. He is leaning again on the bedpost, lids half closed. This is the way of making love that he feels is safer, because I have the most control. But the way he likes best is from behind. Perhaps due to the animal in him, the one who growls, crouches, roars. Oh God, maybe later….

Just thinking of him like that enhances my lust and, sensing it, he too starts pushing. Controlled, always, but hard enough. Up and up we go together, I am now leaning on him, kissing his mouth again. His cool tongue seeks entrance, granted instantly, while his hand slides between us, going where he knows his touch will send me over the top… I am a goner now. I shatter and he follows me. Oh my darling…

"_Cara_, welcome to America." he smirks.

**Edward**

Bella sleeps again, wrapped in a light comforter. It may still be summer but the night is rather cool here. A thought reaches me from below:

_Before winter they'll need something I have seen on a catalogue: electric blankets… they have been created for people with TBC in sanatoriums, so that they can comfortably stay in the open and breath the mountain air… But now those blankets are getting available to the general public too. Good…_

Alice. Oh, they are back… I was too distracted for a while. And now what is she doing? She is with Jasper… and he…

Shit, he was speaking the truth. No secrets in this family.

Endnotes

Reviews? I will answer all of them, before or after my trip.

I wanted Edward to enjoy his first cougar and I researched about them in the Eastern US. In Upper Michigan there have been sightings to this day, so in 1945 they were sure to be found.


	4. Chapter 4  Blushing red

**Parachutist 2 – Our New World**

Chapter 4 Blushing red

A/N Hi everybody, I am back from sunny (too sunny, sizzling, in fact) Uzbekistan and posting again. While I was there I was reached by the stunning news that The Parachutist won second place in The Shimmer Awards as "Outstanding story".

_Previously_

_Shit, he was speaking the truth. No secrets in this family._

**Edward**

Bella is sleeping late and of course I let her. I put on pants and shirt and go downstairs. Esme is in the kitchen with Alice. Alice who Saw me in my birthday suit, as first my mother and then Damon made me.

"Your wife will awaken in twenty minutes," the pixie announces, "time to prepare her breakfast." Her mind is full of something in an obscure language; she is deflecting me.

"What would she like?" Esme asks.

"Italians do not have a big breakfast," I answer. "Coffee with milk and toasts with butter and jam would be fine, I suppose."

When I go upstairs with Bella's tray, she is indeed awake and has taken care of her human moments. She eats with gusto.

"How was your evening with the ladies?" I am curious.

"Embarrassing," she says, "Alice ran a bath for me, and was thinking of staying in and chat, while I bathed. Thank God that Esme told her to give me space. Then she insisted on painting my nails, and that I had to accept, just restricting it to my feet.

"See." Her little foot pops up from under the sheets. Indeed her nails are painted ruby red. I did not notice last night, having more interesting things to do. I catch the foot before she can retreat it and lower my mouth to it.

"Edward?"

"Mm… delicious…" I am kissing the foot now… licking… sucking the toe… aroused already and not really paying attention, but Bella insists:

"They wanted to know everything… what we do in bed…"

Oops.

"Wait, who was asking?"

"Well, Alice mainly, but Rosalie had the worst questions, and Esme didn't say anything, but did not stop the girls either."

Oh my God. But, in a sense, I understand. If Carlisle was floored when he first knew of it, that it was possible for a vampire to make love to a human and not to kill her, and then was curious, albeit in a scientific way… well, female - emphasis on female - vampires are probably curious as well.

"So, what did you say to them?" I enquire.

"As little as I could, but then they asked me to just answer yes and no… and I did… it was mostly yes, though."

Bella is tomato red by now.

At vampire speed I remove the tray she had been eating from and fall on the bed, having disposed of all my clothes. I have a hunch about how to manage this situation before it becomes too stressful. Her nightgown, that she has put on again, has also to go, and fast. It is light yellow and one I don't recognize. Last night I was distracted indeed.

"Pretty. New?" I ask.

"_Sì,_ pretty, Sangallo lace. Alice has put a few things in my drawers and in the closet, and now she wants to go shopping with me… She says we'll travel to some city when Carlisle comes back… Oh," she gasps, because the nightgown is gone and I have her lying prone.

"Did you tell them about this?" I ask, sliding two cushions under her stomach, "and this?" I am caressing her pert little bottom, a naughty finger wandering between her nether cheeks, until I feel her excitement, body surging towards me, legs opening slightly… the scent of her desire addling my brain a little.

"Or this?" I am inside her, in my favorite position. Thrusting, thrusting, slowly at first, then faster, as fast as I can and still keep her safe. She screams her orgasm, I follow her. Bliss. I always purr afterwards, when we do it like this, animal that I am.

And now for the second part of my plan.

"Even if you did not tell them about this," I say, turning her in my arms, so that we are facing each other, "they know, now."

"What?" She gasps. I have whispered my words, hoping that they are undetected. I continue whispering:

"Alice probably has Seen it in advance – she Saw me bare assed before we went hunting, and gave her husband a change of pants for me - then Jasper must have felt lust and pleasure coming from us, and, well, you were not exactly silent, my love. Me neither. We have to live with it, though, or go away, because I don't think we would like to abstain. Or could, at that. Jasper told me yesterday this is a 'family with no secrets'. In fact, while you were sleeping, I heard him and Alice going at it like rabbits. And I barely avoided seeing in their minds what they were doing. So, what do you want to do?"

Bella has hidden her face on my chest, her blush practically covering all her upper body.

Personally, I don't want to go away. I know it. Despite the embarrassment of not having any privacy, I am very happy to be with Carlisle's family, and I long for his return. And I am not ashamed of my love life. If anything, I am rather proud of it, delight aside. But, what will Bella decide?

She is now looking into space; I can't read her but I almost see a thousand little wheels turning in her brain…

"I know you want to stay," she finally says, just mouthing her words. I can hear her, though.

"And I want it too, I think. They are very nice people, all considered. And, surely, they are the only company we can keep and be ourselves. So…"

"So?" I encourage her.

"So, I'll try not to think about it, and, fortunately, I can't hear them, for now. You know, apart from the fact that you can melt me till I am a happy puddle, I am so proud of you. If there were awards for a perfect, non-killing, vampire lover, I would see that you get it. We have nothing to be ashamed of."

Wonderful Bella.

"But, let's leave occasionally, where we can be alone for a while. And, maybe, we could have a radio in our room. Covering noises." She concludes.

After that, we dress and go downstairs to brave the audience.

**Jasper**

Table tennis match with my new brother. Well, vampire table tennis, five balls and two paddles, one for each hand. He is puzzled at the beginning, then gets the hang of it. Bella says she can't see anything, too fast, and goes back to the main house. The human girl is calm, self possessed and smells too good, so I am not unhappy to see her go. Edward looks at me, but projects just a modest concern, nothing much.

While we play, I think of this morning, when he went back to his room with Bella's breakfast. At first they were speaking normally and I could easily follow from my second floor room. Bella complained about the grilling she received from the women on the intimate aspects of their marriage and Edward reaction was… to provide further information for us all, barring Emmett and Rosalie, who were in the garage.

We normally try to distract ourselves from each other's antics, yet I have to admit to curiosity. Erotic passion flowed from them, but, additionally, I felt something different coming from Edward. It was… the desire to protect. It was like he was restraining himself with a cage of love, lest the full strength of his lust-dominated vampiric body be unleashed on his human bride. Even more surprisingly, I did not detect any frustration about his restraint. When they were spent I only felt their deep satisfaction. So this is what happens between them, how amazing…

He stops moving his paddles, the five little balls falling from the table, to regard me with a little smirk.

"I see you have your answer," he says, having read in my mind what I was remembering. Shit, this is something to which I must become accustomed to. No secrets with a vengeance… and there is nothing to it but to be completely frank, so that words and thoughts are the same. That is, until I learn to deflect.

"Alice is quite good at doing that already," he laughs.

"Well, since you know what I am thinking, I am sure you are seeing more questions that would be terribly impolite to ask… why don't you kindly answer them?

"Think away!"

This guy has a refreshing sense of humor. But I prefer to speak aloud, so that my thoughts don't wander too far.

"I still struggle with bloodlust, though it's been more than 20 years since I have… mm…let us say, reformed. I'm always tempted to get a fix of the real thing. You were brought to this life a little more than a year ago, as I understand it. How do you manage?"

"Frankly, I don't know." Edward answers, "It is not that I did not think about it, only, I have confusing and contradictory answers.

"When I was human I had a strong physical aversion to spilling blood. Literally. Which, for a paratrooper trained in hand to hand combat was rather funny, you'll admit. When I was turned the aversion seemed to disappear, but I wonder if it remained buried somewhere and eventually resurfaced, helping me.

"As a newborn I was enraged. My sire and his comrade wanted me for my mind reading gift. I was meant to be brought to Aro in Volterra. However, I hated what I had become, so I rebelled and destroyed them."

I look at him, surprised, remembering the long string of newborns I had created, trained and eventually killed, when I was under Maria's orders. Not one of them had been able to prevail over me, despite trying, as my scars prove.

"Beginner's luck," Edward smirks, reacting to my thought. "Nobody had told me that a newborn isn't supposed to win a fight against mature vampires, so I fought them and won. They were not together when I turned against them and I surprised the first one. With the second, I used my gift. I could see his moves when he thought about them, so he never managed to catch me. When he made a mistake, I had him.

"In any case, very soon after that, I found Carlisle and discovered that I had choices. Unfortunately, I made the wrong one and, albeit I was so blessed that I could control my thirst and limit myself to animals from almost the beginning. I could have followed Carlisle's example immediately, but I did not do it. I told myself that I could be a vampire and an American officer, continuing my war and drinking from the enemies I had been sent in Italy to kill. It was a delusion, obviously. What I did had little strategic value and was not justified. It was greed. Human blood tasted better, it was as simple as that."

A strong emotion is coming from him now. It is guilt. I am enthralled by this conversation. We don't often speak of such things in our family, apart the occasional conversation with Carlisle, which is a little like speaking with a priest. Alice loves me, supports me and encourages me, but she is probably afraid that to discuss bloodlust would not be healthy, would maybe trigger something.

"Yeah, it tastes better," Edward repeats, "but killing for it leaves a bitter aftertaste… So, to continue, my gift was a horrible burden, when I was hunting men. Though it was a pleasure to kill some Nazis – I have a very fond memory of a certain _SS Sturmbannführer_ Otto Schulz – in many other cases it was not so. Their thoughts disturbed me. So I killed without listening, most of the time. I rendered my victims unconscious and I drank…"

He is going exactly where I too am going in my mind. I remember the horror of being drowned by the emotions of my victims, innocent victims at that, or newborns, whom I destroyed when no longer useful. Doing it year after year, until I could stand it no more and left Maria. And of trying, alone and desperate, to resist my thirst and always succumbing… until Alice saved me.

This time Edward's smile is gentle.

"A German soldier saved me. His name was Egon. I discovered that he was honest and good, a potential hero in fact, only after I had drained him dry. It was an unfinished letter I found in his wallet that opened my eyes. And I swore over his corpse that I would not kill another man for his blood, ever." He shows me his right hand. "This is his ring, that I'll wear forever, to keep true to my promise. It is very thin, but it keeps me chained."

After that, there is not much more to say. Edward proposes that we go for a run, just to stretch our legs, and I follow him outside. I feel he is quite relaxed and hunky-dory now, and I have the same feelings. I think that what we shared today will stay with us. I know that my new brother is exactly that, a brother, who is not shy of confiding and in whom I know I will be able to confide.

Endnotes

I hope I did justice to Jasper in this chapter. What do you think?

In case you don't know or remember, Damon was Edward's sire.

Otto Schulz: See The Parachutist, Chapter 15.

Egon: See The Parachutist, Chapter 17.


	5. Chapter 5 Philadelphia

**Parachutist 2- Our New World**

Chapter 5 - Philadelphia

A/N. Parachutist2 - Our New World has now a thread on the forums of Twilighted net. I'll post there the images I can't put here and some sneak peeks. Please visit, if you can.

http:/www(.)twilighted(.)net/forum/viewtopic(.)php?f=33&t=17854

Just take off the parentheses. I hope it works.

Ideally this chapter should be headed by a drawing by Edward Hopper, done in the early years of 1900 and titled Boy and Moon. If you have time, do look for it on Google images. Title and author will bring it to you. When I saw it in a recent exhibition I said… 'Edward!' (Canon Edward, probably, not so much my Edward Masen, who was born later, in 1920). A bronze aired boy in a typically American bedroom, waking from a nightmare (or having a nightmare), unaware of what Fate has in store for him.

At the bottom, a few recs.

**Bella**

We are going to Philadelphia. It has been a sort of family exodus, involving everybody. Our first stop was Washington, DC. Carlisle was back in the US, reporting to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the capital and getting his permanent discharge. After we met with him, he went away with Esme for a second (or third ? I don't think they count anymore) honeymoon. They took the Cadillac and drove away. Edward told me that he had found it very difficult to stay out of their heads and avoid seeing what they anticipated doing, once they would be alone. A hot spring resort somewhere in the mountains of West Virginia featured prominently in Carlisle's mind.

"Well," Edward said to me, "vampires are very sexual beings." As if I didn't know it.

"Hot springs, how delicious," I observed, "but, they will only able to enjoy them at night, unless they want to really surprise the other bathers …"

"From what I have seen, the place they are going to is very upscale, and offers private pools, well screened for privacy …" he replied.

The idea of bathing and laying in the sun with Edward was so appealing that I asked him if we could have a similar holiday some day. And then I went on fantasizing about what would be likely to happen near a screened pool, both of us undressed, his sparkling body warm from the sun and the hot water …

But, for the moment, we are going to Edward's hometown, where our acquired siblings will join us later, after a short stay in New York City. My husband needs to see his family attorney and set his affairs straight. Very kindly, Alice lent us her Jaguar, while the rest piled into Emmett's Buick.

We have booked a hotel in Philadelphia, the Bellevue. For some reason Edward does not want to stay in his family house. When I ask why, he freezes, and I know him well enough to realize that something about my question has disturbed him. He then says he doesn't know whether the house is in any kind of condition for us to use it. There is something he isn't telling me, but I don't push him now; he'll open up, eventually. When I understand what's bothering him, I'll be able to deal with it.

The hotel is really grand, built 40 years ago in a so called Italian Renaissance style – well, in a matter of speaking – but anyway, it is quite overwhelming. What really fascinates me is that the majestic ballroom's lighting fixtures were designed by Thomas Edison himself.

A maid is supposed to unpack our luggage and there is nothing we can do to stop her. Edward hisses lightly and, when she has gone, he does not want to explain why, but I manage to cajole things out of him. Apparently, she had a very poor opinion of the content of my suitcase, which cost her half of the tip she would have received otherwise.

"OK, OK," I say, because I don't really think it is that important. "As soon as Alice arrives I'll make her happy, we'll go shopping. She has been pestering me forever."

The morning after it is sunny, so the chance to visit Independence Hall and to see the Liberty Bell, so significant in American history, has to be postponed. Alice told us that in the afternoon it should become cloudy, and that is when Edward has scheduled the meeting with his attorney.

Before that, we make good use of a hotel amenity that is new for me: Turkish baths. Only, there is male-female separation, so we don't stay for long. But, when we get back to our room, my vampire is very warm… Well, it isn't hot springs, but the next best thing.

Mr. Stevens has his office near Rittenhouse Square. Edward has donned dark glasses to cover his topaz eyes, since when the attorney knew him they were green, and he is using a walking stick. His paleness adds to the image of a man who is ill, but not bed ridden. After I have been introduced as the happy bride, I excuse myself – as I have agreed with Edward, in fact I asked him to – and retire to the waiting room, delving in the pile of magazines provided.

I know that my husband will tell his lawyer that he has found a very good doctor, who, besides being a comrade in arms and a friend, is the one who diagnosed him with Porphyria when everybody else was baffled, and is trying to cure him or at least ease his symptoms, and that it is working. So he is going to live near him in the future, and that will not be in Philadelphia. When he feels better he will decide what to do next. Then they will discuss Edward's assets and how he wants them to be managed.

When he has finished and comes for me I see that he is troubled, but he does not say anything. We start crossing the square.

**Edward**

My feet are walking me where I don't want to go, but I can't stop them. So we cross Rittenhouse Square, turn right and left and are on a quiet street lined with Victorian houses. It is a street I know too well. I wish I could continue walking, but I am glued to the pavement while I look at the brick house I had hoped I would never see again, because the very idea was dreadful, when I thought of it.

Bella watches the house, puzzled, then turns toward me. I know my face is a marble mask of pain. She is her usual perceptive self, so she asks:

"Is this your house, Edward?"

"Yes." I murmur.

"Do you want to go in?"

_Noo_, I am screaming in my mind, but I answer:

"I have to. I told Stevens that I wanted to retrieve my car and he gave me the house keys. I must go in to get the ones for the garage. I have told him that, until I decide what to do with it, I just want the building kept in good repair and the inside regularly cleaned, something he has been seeing to in the last three years, but then he gave me the keys and now…"

"Let's go in, Edward," she says.

My legs seem made of lead while I take the three steps leading to the door. Somebody…me?... opens it. We are inside.

_The monster is now inside. The killer who feasted on human blood is inside, defiling his parents' house. _

I steel myself. I can do it quickly. On the left there is a door leading to the pantry, where all the spare keys were kept on a small rack.

"Wait for me." I say to Bella and at vampire speed I go retrieve the garage and car keys. A moment, no more and again I am by the entrance. _Now let me get the hell out of here_.

Too late. I don't know if it is the house' smell or the guilt I remember feeling as a human, when I left for the war after the accident that claimed my parents' lives, or the guilt the vampire feels now for what he has done in Italy, but I can only collapse on my knees and cry.

And cry.

Tender, fragile arms around me. The tears I cannot shed drenching my shirt. My love, my soul is with me, crying my tears for me. I am not alone.

"Edward, show me your room." she insists after a while.

Is she mad? I can't go there. But Bella has taken command now and she knows better.

And so we go upstairs, and so I open the door of my room. This is the room as I left it, not as it was before my parents' death. It is the room of a monk, with nothing personal left. I had cleaned it out of significant object s and mementos, allowing only for some books to remain on the shelves, while I mourned. And finally I had run from it, leaving music behind, to become a paratrooper. Numbed, until I met her at the farm near Bologna. And then I had hoped to bring Bella here as my bride, the human bride of a living man, a happy, normal future in front of us, learning, composing, giving concerts, raising a family…

A smell I cannot define, maybe not new, but that I dimly remember, hits my nose. Is it, could it be…? I open the closet and the smell is stronger. There are still clothes hanging and yes, it is my smell, it is the smell of human Edward Masen. Oh Christ.

I am about to cry again over the lost me, over a future that now cannot be, but she is pulling my hand. I follow her until we reach my single bed and she indicates that we should lie together.

Soft, sweet kisses, tender caresses. She is protecting me from my demons, she is consoling me. Chastely, which is exactly what I need, until I relax in her arms and my trembling ceases.

"Sleep now, baby, sleep," she says_, "dormi, bambino, dormi"._ I can't, but she does it for me, this is her gift for the boy I was, for the bitter young man, for the monster I have been, for the sleepless creature she loves.

When after her little nap we rise from the bed, I feel dazed, but better. Hand in hand we wander in the house. My parents' bedroom, clean, vacant, empty. I could not stand it and I had taken all their things from the closets and drawers, asking the maid to dispose of them as she saw fit. My mother's jewels and the house silver are in the bank vault I rented before leaving. But their wedding photo is still on the vanity table. I never had the courage to touch it. Young and in love, smiling to each other. Now I find myself coveting the photo. I know I will look at it, night after night while Bella sleeps, until I am ready to tell them what happened to their son, how he was damned and how he was saved. I know I will be able to, now. I take it.

"She was beautiful," Bella says, "what was the color of her eyes?"

"Green."

"And her hair?"

"Like mine."

"Oh. You have your father's nose and brow."

"Yeah, a good mix of both."

"But your mouth… is your own." And she kisses my lips lightly.

We go down to the first floor and the living room, where everything is covered in white sheets. In the farthest corner, near the bow window, there is my piano. It was a present from my _Oma_ for my 16th birthday, to substitute for the upright one I had been practicing on since I was a child. I take off the covering sheet and play some notes. It is off key, obviously. But I'll tune it and, when we have a permanent place to stay, I'll have it with me.

We walk to the hotel and I realize that I completely forgot about the car. Well, there is time tomorrow, I am no longer afraid of going back to my house.

Chapter endnotes

The style of the hotel: in The Parachutist we have already established that Bella is a little snob, when it comes to good taste. Fake Renaissance would be quite a blow to her, at first. Then she would say 'what the hell' and enjoy her stay.

_Oma_ means grandmother in German. Edward's granny was Austrian.

Stories I am currently reading and loving (More next time, if you like recs):

-**De Immortalitate** by Raum. The life of the Roman patrician Antonius is put at stake by his father, Felix. When Felix brings to his only son a new slave, Bella, more reasons arise for Antonius' concerns. Felix's secret can change Antonius' and Bella's destiny." ExB AU/vampires.

-**The count of Tuscany** by Withany. She gets kidnapped, he gets killed, but..." This was the Princess Bride plot, not necessarily mine. If you're expecting vitamin C from this, sorry, you'll get scurvy. However, there may be gore. I hope. AU/Vampires

And, verging a little on crackfic:

-**Unforeseen Events, Revisited** by Jmolly. Updated version of UE, her 1st story here. Additional scenes and details. Watch out for Dads with guns and vamps with cameras. They'll be the death of you. Eclipse, AU.


	6. Chapter 6 Rosalie

**Parachutist 2 –Our New World**

Chapter 6 - Rosalie 

**A/N** On the Twilighted Forums' thread there is the image for this chapter. http:/ www. twilighted. net/forum/viewtopic. php?f=33&t=17854

I'm up for the Emerging Swan Awards! Check the nominees, perhaps there are stories that you haven't read yet: h t t p : / / emergingswanawards. blogspot. com. Raum, Jmolly and Maniac Motherland are also up! Voting dates - One-Shot, Short Story & Newbie Author: August 22-29. I have Confession , The Archer and Heartbroken running.

Thanks to the Fictionators for the rec of OWN posted this week.

**Bella**

This morning is not sunny, so I am treated to a tour of Philadelphia, to see some of its historical landmarks. Since in the future I will become not only a vampire but an American citizen, I am particularly interested. I know only the bare bones of this country's history, it was not really part of the Italian school programs, and what little I was given was biased.

Edward knows how much I love eating informally and outdoors, so for lunch he brings me to a very funny place in the southern part of the city. It is not much more than a stall called Pat's and its owner, originally selling hot dogs, invented something called cheese steak sandwich. It is delicious, I like it so much that I have to steel myself not to eat a second one. My husband is smirking at my greediness, when in his eyes I detect a hint of sadness.

"Love, what are you thinking?" I ask.

Obviously he would prefer not to answer, but he also knows that dark thoughts would fester inside, so he tells me.

"You enjoy your food so much … I hate the idea that one day this pleasure will be denied to you. I know I missed it too. I was so pissed off that I could not eat anymore .."

"Edward, I am a hungry post-war Italian, and also curious… but it is not going to be a problem, I promise you. To be sincere, what pisses me off is that here I can't drink wine until I am 21. We don't have this kind of rule in my country... Do you remember the Lambrusco we drank at the farm?

"Well, I surely can order wine and you are welcome to it. I doubt the Bellevue stores Lambrusco but, if you like sparkling and want a bottle of champagne…"

"A bottle! Mr. Masen, are you trying to make me drunk?"

"Mm, and what happens when you are drunk?"

"I have no idea, I have never been before… let's find out!" I say unashamedly.

So when we later get back to the hotel he orders a bottle of Dom Perignon, but I never get the chance to get drunk. After two glasses I am just in high spirits and so bold that I attack my immortal and he lets me win …

Much, much later we order dinner from room service and I look forward to finishing the champagne while eating. But Edward surprises me by doing something unexpected. He pours some champagne in his own glass and lifts it to a toast. It is a nice gesture, I raise my own glass and almost choke, because he is drinking …

I look at him speechless. He is absorbed in himself, concentrating on what is happening inside his body…

_Will he have to regurgitate?_ I ask myself... No… He has a surprised expression on his face, then emits a sound like a little cough, then he is grinning, then laughing aloud.

"Oops," he says, "I would never had imagined this."

"What, Edward? Tell me."

"Well, I'll have to try again and I surely will… but, I think it... popped and vaporized as soon as it touched the walls of my stomach. I coughed and felt the vapor coming up again in my mouth and nose, a not unpleasant sensation, and a thrilling aroma, I must say. I wonder if, insisting, I could get drunk from inhaling it … "

"A drunk vampire … what would you do?" I cannot but ask him, alarmed.

"Mm, no, a drunken vampire is not a good idea, so I will pose strict limits to my imbibing, just in case. I'll be very cautious but, this is wonderful! I have to work at suppressing the cough; it won't do if I look like a teenager with his first glass..."

He is so elated that he takes another mouthful, with the same pleasant effect, and then he says he wants to try something. So, following his instructions and puzzled at first, I too take a mouthful, but I don't swallow… and finally I understand. We exchange a champagne kiss… and share the ensuing alcoholic vapor he produces. _Che meraviglia_. A very French type of French kissing. One thing follows another and it is actually quite late when I finally get to sleep. Like a log.

During the night Edward went back to his house, or, better, to the garage, to find his car.

He tells me when I wake up in the morning and he has returned to lie with me. Apparently, the car is dead.

"Well, the family is joining us this evening. Here is a chance for Rosalie to show off. In the meanwhile…" He goes to the window. "In the meanwhile it is sunny, maybe in the afternoon the situation will improve, but for now I have to stay put."

How strange, now for me too weather improvement means a cloudy sky.

"You know what? Let's take a bath!" I suggest.

"You don't want breakfast?" He smiles.

"Just order me a coffee" I say." I'll have breakfast downstairs, after the bath. We can sit in the salon and read the newspapers.

The foreign news hints at a fast-changing world. Roosevelt died this year and Churchill lost the elections. Only Stalin remains and we wonder idly what it will mean for international politics. There are speculations about what General Mac Arthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in the Rising Sun country will do, after Japan surrendered on September 2nd. Many would like to know if he, who is now the virtual 'king' of the defeated country, will insist that the Emperor be punished or will he save his ass? We both speak of the way the war was won, of the terrible new bomb that has been used, twice, after its creation by a team of dedicated scientists, a Jewish Italian refugee - the physicist Enrico Fermi - among them…

"I think we have unleashed a demon…." Edward muses.

Our siblings arrive at mid afternoon, their car full of Alice and Rosalie's New York shopping bags and boxes. In the evening we all go to Edward's house under a steady rain.

They want to see the house, while I know that Edward is still uneasy about it. I offer to accompany them around, while he and Rosalie go in the garage to examine the dead car. When we join them we are given the verdict… just a dead battery that will have to be replaced. Further improvements can wait until we are in Michigan again.

"You'll need also to change windshield and windows as soon as possible," Rosalie declares. "Let's go back to the hotel, I can make a few calls and see if tinted ones for a Ford sedan are available, otherwise we will have to see if it is possible to special-order them from our usual supplier. You must be able to drive undetected when it is sunny.

We spend some time together in one of the drawing rooms and Edward introduces our siblings to the pleasure of champagne. Well, between little coughs and small moans everybody is in high spirits indeed. And so surprised. They wonder why Carlisle never told them… but the explanation is clear: he does not know. Son of a pastor, he abstained from alcohol as a human, and never thought to try it after his change, as all other beverages were impossible to drink for him. But why did he not discover that it was possible when he was with the Volturi? It is not credible that the ancient coven does not know, so there must be another reason…The more immediate problem is that Emmett is too happy with this discovery… until Rosalie convinces him that if he stops now, she will… they hastily retire to their room and in a short while we do the same.

In the morning we separate. Emmett and Edward are given strict specifications about buying a new battery and some extra tools that are not in the Masens' garage

Jasper and Alice depart a little later, so I am left with Rosalie. Apart from the evening when she joined her mother and sister to grill me about my intimacy with Edward, I had nothing much to do with her after I arrived. She spends a lot of time in the garage, or in the bedroom with Emmett, and she rarely speaks to me.

Since we have to wait for the boys and their purchases, we decide to go to the Turkish baths. Her hair pinned up in a haphazard and becoming way, her body elegantly wrapped in a soft white sheet, Rosalie looks like an Olympus goddess, gracing us mortals with her perfection. For a while she does not say anything, just basks in the warmth and enjoys it, like Edward and any other vampire would.

After a while, she starts looking at me, with an unflinching stare. Her expression is interrogative, and I wonder what she is thinking. I discover it fast enough, as we are alone in the baths this morning and she is free to speak her mind.

"Why do you want to become a vampire, Bella?" she asks bluntly.

"I think it is the only thing I can do, if I don't want to lose Edward," is my simplified but sincere answer. "If I don't, I will eventually die and I know he will follow me, once I am gone. I can't stand the idea."

"Have you considered what you'll be giving up?"

"Yes, I think so."

She warms to the issue:

"I don't think you did it properly. How can you accept easily that you will never be a mother, will never have children … a barren eternity?"

"It's… it is not so important to me," is my guarded answer.

"Then you are a fool. I would do anything, anything to be a mother, I would give up my family, Emmett, everything."

I understand the passion behind her words, but I am suddenly very angry:

"I would not bring a child of mine into this world. A child that can be torn from his mother's arms and just shattered on the concrete, while his mother is thrown in a gas chamber…"

When the Allies got to the concentration camps, and the few survivors' stories started circulating, everybody got the full view of what Nazism was, and this American vampire, who during the war lived safely in a faraway place, should not be spared the knowledge.

My outburst gives her pause. She does not say anything for a while, and then resumes:

"Would you like to avenge yourself, then?"

"No, but the men who killed my parents and so many of my people, were human, weren't they? So, here is your final answer, Rosalie: I don't mind if, to be with Edward forever, I have to belong to a different species. My own has not much to recommend itself. Edward, Carlisle and your family have been kinder to me than some of the so-called humans of this world. I don't find immortality to be that distasteful, if I can remain with Edward and live with the rest of you as my family." She looks at me appraisingly, comprehension softening her features.

"And, to conclude, so that you understand me well," I go on, "I have only one fear, one that made me almost leave Edward, before I married him. I don't want to be a killer, and I don't want to drink human blood, ever. So I look at the newborn stage with dread."

She smiles. Something has shifted.

"It is possible to abstain from the very beginning, you know? It is not only Carlisle. I never drank from humans myself. I dislike being a vampire. But, I had my revenge: I killed my fiancé and his friends for what they had done to me, stealing my innocence and my human future. They died painfully, but not a single drop of their blood touched my lips. And I was a newborn then."

We are both silent now. What she has told me is awful, but she was awfully wronged. When eventually Rosalie speaks again, I feel that there has been a positive change between us.

"Bella, sometimes I am a mean bitch, I know. Forget what I said. I do love Emmett and my family. Esme is much more of a mother to me than my natural one ever was. A vapid socialite, ugh. I promise you, when the time of your change comes, we will take good care of you. You are not to worry, little sister."

Chapter end notes

A confrontation between Bella and Rosalie was _de rigueur_, I think. In the changed circumstances I wrote how it could be. What do you think? Please, review and tell me.

It is a fact, nothing about America was studied in Italian high schools at the time, not in the history classes, nor in literature. I have asked my aunt Gianna, who was frequenting the Liceo in the late '30s and early '40s, and she confirmed it. Newspapers and radio insisted on the harsh social problems existing in the US during the Depression, American natives were known as cowboy films presented them, and of course the Secession war was ignored or completely misrepresented.

If you never went to Philadelphia and never tried Pat's steak sandwich, don't miss it when you go. (There is even a website to help you finding it). I had the opportunity to eat there twice while visiting the Quakers' city and it is one of my fondest memories. If you have been there, and you are not a vegetarian, you know what I mean.

Edward drinking alcohol … very OOC, I know. Forgive me, but I could not resist the idea, and, as this story is AU anyway, why not? Imagine the fun they will all have, Emmett particularly. This is going to help their human interaction a lot, and, fortunately Prohibitionism has ended. I wonder why vampires did not try it before… Would Aro know about it? Maybe he did, but a slightly drunk vampire was not so easy controlled, so he kept this from common knowledge… mm... Would Carlisle be a teetotaler (without the tea)? I think so.

_Che meraviglia_ means how marvelous ..


	7. Chapter 7 Only in America

**Parachutist 2 – Our New World**

Chapter 7- Only in America…

**A/****N** Oh, please take the time to read the endnotes, they are so part of my stories…

The images for this chapter are posted on the Twilighted net thread Taking off the parenthesis, here is the link: http:/www(.)twilighted(.)net/forum/viewtopic(.)php?f=33&t=17854

**Bella**

Rosalie and I take the Jaguar to go to Edward's house, where the others are supposed to arrive with their purchases. Jasper comes back with Emmett, saying that they had met and Alice had accompanied Edward to his bank, where he had something to do. He seems a little cagey about it.

Once the car is fixed we return to the Bellevue, as the afternoon will be sunny again. And tomorrow we leave. Edward has done what he meant to do in Philadelphia and now back to Michigan it is. We will wait for Carlisle and Esme to come back from their umpteenth honeymoon and then, as I understand it, the Cullens will prepare to relocate somewhere else. What will Edward and I do? Obviously we have something to discuss privately, so we separate from the others and, this time with Edward's car, we drive away on our own. The Ford has no tinted windows yet but, according to Alice, we will have cloudy skies and even rain for three or four days, so it will be fine.

When we depart I have more luggage than when I arrived. There has been no time for shopping but, Alice had Seen it and shopped for me in New York. Well, she is like that.

Not far from Philadelphia we pass near Doylestown where I remember there is something I absolutely want to see, after Esme told me about it: Fonthill Castle. The archeologist and tiles collector/ fabricant Henry Chapman Mercer built his castle-museum in 1908 with hand mixed concrete, room by room, starting from the interior and not considering the exterior until all rooms had been imagined and sketched. A technique never used before or after and the result is spectacular. Besides the tiles, the building hosts a collection of pre-industrial tools that Mercer thought were going to disappear even from memory, with the advance of mass production technologies.

Leaving the castle I am mesmerized by what I have seen and I try to explain my feelings to Edward.

"Only in America," I tell him, "only in America you can give reality to your vision, without being weighted down by history, tradition and, most of all, your peers' opinion. Mercer thought it was fine to build in concrete by hand or with medieval tools. No matter if to deal with the most modern of materials with ancient techniques was a contradiction, in a way that it was almost an oxymoron. He wanted to do it and he did. This is real freedom."

"I would have thought that history and traditions are something you value," is Edward's observation."

We have stopped on a secondary road under some trees for me to enjoy the lavish picnic basket the Bellevue has prepared for us, not knowing that only one of us will be eating. I ponder his question, while eating a disproportionate number of delicious mini sandwiches.

"Why yes, as an Italian and a Jew I have millennia of history and tradition on my back and I do value them but, they can be crippling." I don't know if Edward understands me, and I am not even sure of what I want to say. Later, when we are again on the road, it comes to me.

"Of course it is possible to get free from history, tradition and your peers' opinion even if you are not in America, only, I think it is more difficult. But still, it is possible. Look at what Carlisle did. Tradition, history, nature, even, dictated how a vampire should behave, but he refused to submit.

"Indeed..." Edward doesn't add anything else but, it is obvious that he is thinking about it.

We find a nice country inn somewhere in a forest. I have no idea where we are and I don't care. After we have 'shared' a meal in our usual way we retire in our room. Edward needs to hunt, his eyes are darkening, so he leaves from the window, despite the heavy rain. Well, it is not as he would catch a cold, anyway. Alone and not sleepy, I curl up with a book I bought in Philadelphia. It is an anthology called _The Pocket Book of Science Fictio_n and it is something I never encountered before. After a while, however, I notice I am lingering on the same page. What will the future bring, what does it mean to live forever and witness so many changes? If I start thinking about how life was at the end of the last century - as far I know of it - I can see how many things have changed, both in technology and in human relations, not always for the best, but still…. And fifty years from now things will have changed again. It is mind-blowing…

**Edward**

"Oh my God, oh Edward…" Bella pants.

Under the shower, as hot as she can stand it, what was just to help me to get warmer when I came back has morphed into something else. Would I be able to do this if I was not a vampire? Well, maybe yes, she is a small girl, but it would require some effort. No effort needed presently, there is only pleasure. My hands cupping her delightful ass, her legs around my hips, water gently cascading over us, I am giving her all that I can without hurting her, and it seems to be more than enough. As the inn is deserted apart from us, we do not need to concern ourselves about the noise we make, no family with super hearing here.

We have enjoyed bathing together in tubs but, to make love in a shower is a first. Why haven't we tried this before? I move her on my length, going deeper every time, but carefully keeping my hips stationary. It could be too much, I could go too deep. The little minx reaches for my neck, though, kissing and nibbling my scar and I grow impossibly harder, the need to thrust almost overwhelming.

"Don't be afraid," she murmurs on my skin, "move, you'll not hurt me…"

I have learned to trust her, her body always seems to know what is right, so I let myself go… a little more, and it is divine. My abdomen tightens, I am ready to come… she must too… I decide that one hand is sufficient to hold her, so I slid the other between us and press her little nub and it's enough… for both of us.

When we are spent I envelop her in a bathrobe, towel myself perfunctorily and go back with her to our room, where I have another favorite activity in mind. I take her hair drier, plug it in and start blow drying her tresses, first using the comb and then the brush. Her floral scent invades my senses and I bask in it till the mahogany mass has become a perfumed silk mantle, ready for my fingers to make a mess of again. Mm… No, I have something I want to do first.

I go and get a little box from my suitcase.

"Bella, in Italy I never managed to give you a proper engagement ring. You know, In Philadelphia I went to the bank vault where I keep my family's valuables. I took this for you…It was my mother's."

"Oh Edward, is beautiful. What is it?"

I remember me as a child asking my mother the same question, puzzled by the white stone's light green and gray reflexes.

"A white sapphire." I tell her, sliding it on her slender finger. The setting is in yellow gold, matching our wedding rings.

"_Amore, grazie_, I feel so proud," Bella says, "I love that it was your mother's…"

I kiss her finger and think about what she is not saying, but is probably evident to her too. Before she obliged me to visit every room of my parent's house and face my demons and my guilt, I could not have borne to see my mother's ring on her hand every day. Now I can. Another miracle Bella has performed.

"Edward," she says, obviously on the same page, "despite what has happened to you in Italy, you still can try to be what you want to be, like Carlisle has done. I know that you will have to be careful, lest the Volturi discover you, but please, think about it. Think of what would make you happy…"

"You make me happy," I start kissing her, taking her in my arms and lying down on the bed with her. But, before we are lost again in each other, Bella insists, covering my wandering mouth with her hand:

"I do hope so but, please, think about it…"

While my angel sleeps peacefully, I reflect on what she has told me today, when we left Fonthill and here, seeing the mad genius' achievements as a metaphor relevant for vampires who don't want to submit to tradition, don't want their nature and the rules of a power-crazy coven to determine them. After all, when she first saw me, Alice had a vision of my future.

When Bella awakens and smiles to me, I have something to say.

"Love, I would like to finish my musical studies and take the diploma. I had decided to go back when the war ended, but fate, and the Volturi, decided otherwise. At least I thought so, until now."

"Well, why not? I understand that our siblings used to go to school or college before the war, so it is possible. Would you go back to Curtis?"

"No, I don't think so," I object, "I have changed too much physically, and there are too many people who knew me before. Even Porphyria would not explain my eyes' color. But, I don't know, Juilliard maybe… I have to discuss it with Carlisle. I think that in many colleges there are schemes for war veterans. My illness could justify a hat, scarf and dark glasses for the sunny days. But, what will you do in New York? I'll be gone most of the day."

"For the time being I would like to perfect my English," is Bella's considered answer. Obviously she has thought about it. "I have a British accent with an Italian cadence, and I need to speak American. I don't want to stand out in any way, it's not prudent. And I need to study more, if I want to be a translator. There must be courses for foreigners I could go to."

So we have a plan. A normalcy plan, I almost can't believe it. Her courage gives me courage. With her at my side and with Carlisle's example I can try…

Endnotes

Oh please, review.

If you don't know about Henry Chapman Mercer and Fonthill Castle just Google the names. I have given Bella the feelings I had when I visited it. '_Only in America'_ is an expression used sometimes disparagingly (I have seen funny photo booklets). However, here it conveys real admiration. I hope that I was able to express what I mean and that the fact that I use it as a metaphor applicable to vampires and their choices is not too farfetched. Since I started writing the sequel I had Fonthill in mind and wanted to address this.

No, this Bella will not be reading Emily Bronte, she has discovered Sci-Fi, and is enthralled by it. Noting similar was ever published in Italy before the war and it is a look into the future she wants to fantasize about. After all, she is hoping to exist very far in the future. _The Pocket Book of Science Fiction_ (1943 - Donald Wollheim) was the first book of the genre to be published, before that Sci-Fi stories only found their way in magazines.

Here is a good place to have a little rant. The passing of time and the changes in the world are important for the vampires who witness them. What completely maddens me are those stories where, after Edward leaves Bella in New Moon and they meet again after decades (she has become a vamp, meanwhile) the world has not changed a jota. Come on, fifty years ago people did not have a cell phone, a laptop or a credit card, just to name three things that changed our life, world politics apart. But too many authors are completely oblivious of this aspect. If you ever found one of such stories where the future way of life is described with some imagination, please tell me, because, having been disappointed many times, I now avoid them like the plague..

The ring I have in mind is on my finger as I write. It was my late mother in law's (You might remember her from The Parachutist's notes – the Resistance heroine) so it belongs to the period's style. The image posted on the Twilight forums gives you an idea. And no, it is not my engagement ring: that adorns beautifully my daughter in law's hand.

_Amore, grazie_ means Thank you, love.


	8. Chapter 8  Syracuse

**Parachutist****2 – Our New World. **

Chapter 8 – Syracuse

A/N I am updating early due to the** Voting for the Emerging Swan awards, WIP and complete fics.** I have **Parachutist2-Our New World in two WIP categories** ( Best Edward and Bella and Best Romance). I am also running **as Oldie but Goodie Author**. The wonderful _De Immortalitate_ by Raum is present both in Best Drama and Best Adventure. Jmolly's sexy _Unforeseen Events Revisited_ is present in Best Humor. There is _Through his eyes_ by RedSummer as Best Family and _The Count of Tuscany_ by Withany as Best Supernatural. As Best Volturi there is _No fate but what we make_ by AngelEyes1 uk. Finally, _I know my duty_ by Ithilwen K-Bane is competing with me as Best E&B, but what the hell, it is a great story! Among the complete fics (Best drama) there _is Forever Gray_ by Soft Ragoo. Go visit and vote your faves before **September 5**th. You can reach there through a ff net address: .net/u/3147840/

The images for this chapter are posted on the twilighted thread: http:/www(.)twilighted(.)net/forum/viewtopic(.)php?f=33&t=17854

**(****No PoV)**

The house is silent, but for the small crackling and groaning of old wood. Nothing can disturb the two lovers, whose bodies are joined but unmoving. More than twenty five years of total devotion to each other, total trust and the sense of eternity they share, the sense that there is time enough, that they are forever, inspired them to make love like this. Not always, to be sure. There are times when, particularly after hunting together, they are like savage animals, even destroying trees as they tear at each other. But not today, when they have the house to themselves and time stands still. Their breathing – unnecessary, but needed for this - slows down gradually and the overactive vampire brain is almost silenced, focusing only on the here and now. Attention expands, and energy is directed to different places of their bodies... thus a circle of bliss is created, till, in an expanded state of ecstasy, they finally experience a full body orgasm... so different from the genital one.

Much, much later Esme emerges from her dreamlike stupor. It was magic and she will be eternally grateful to Carlisle for teaching her to make love like this. As she is generous and loving, she wishes that this pleasure could be enjoyed by her children. Despite the outspokenness common in the family and the fact that very little can be concealed, it is still private to her, and she never went there when speaking with her daughters. Since she and her husband limit the experience to when they are alone, it is still hers and Carlisle's secret. But, is this something they would like? Not Emmett and Rosalie, she thinks, their sex philosophy is the more the better, almost competing with each other. Alice and Jasper now... they might, but there is an underlying streak of kinkiness in their relationship that would prevent it, probably. Still, they love each other passionately and deeply and are happy.

No, the only ones that would be capable of following the Tantric way are Edward and Bella, but not while one is immortal and the other is human. The imbalance would make itself felt. However, there is already some kind of mysticism within those two. The way Edward can make love to his wife without hurting her speaks volumes about his restraint and his capacity for sublimation... and Bella...

Carlisle stirs and Esme's musings come to an end. She admires his tall, athletic body while he dresses, ready for another afternoon and night shift at St Joseph Hospital. He would have been more interested to work at the **Veterans Administration Medical Center, a neuropsychiatric facility recently established by Presidential Decree, but it is not completely functional yet. He feels for the broken veterans and, while psychiatry is not his field, those poor souls would need medical care too.**

**In any case, the family transfer to Syracuse is temporary, a place chosen so that they can be near Edward and Bella, who are living in New York City, where he has enrolled at Juilliard. They have decided to move to Alaska when Edward is finished, as it would be the safest place for Bella's change.** If the change will happen soon, that is. Nobody can miss that, when the issue is touched, Edward freezes. Still, Alice has Seen his wife transformed in a vampire.

Although she could dress in seconds, Esme takes her time, after Carlisle has left. She is not completely happy about the house they are living in and is thinking of little improvements she could make. It is in Fayetteville, to be exact, a Victorian mansion on a side road off East Genesee Street and they decided to rent it, as they do not plan to come here again in the future. To hunt well one has to go to the Adirondack Mountains, because, around here, the Green Lakes State Park does not have a lot to offer, deer mostly, or smaller animals. And the area around Onondaga Lake has been seriously polluted by the salt and soda industries, albeit there are reclamation plans discussed.

But they were in a hurry: Edward had been admitted to Juilliard, his final year was about to start and the hospital here had a vacancy, so they rushed to Syracuse. Now, pollution... the fast way the world is moving and industry is developing will bring more and more of it. Who knows, in the future the pristine wilderness they need to survive could be threatened...

In New York Bella and Edward have rented an apartment very near the music school and the route he takes to get there is such that he can mostly avoid direct sunlight. In a pinch, he can go there jumping from roof to roof. Once inside the school he normally waits until sunset. Well, of course to live in a city is not ideal for vampires but, it is only for the school year. In the meanwhile Bella is following an advanced English course for foreigners. Possibly she feels alone in New York, and Esme is concerned, but there is not much she can do about it.

Today, the boys have gone parachuting, with the girls in tow. Emmett has been pestering Edward forever about it, until his brother caved in and agreed to teach him. The first time he dropped alone, however, it was a sort of disaster. Yelling like a cowboy in a rodeo, Emmett plummeted down without trying to moderate his speed and impacted hard, leaving a man-sized hole in the ground. As it would have looked very suspicious and impossible to explain, they both had to work at super speed to fill it. Fortunately there were not onlookers near the field, but Edward was really angry.

Now Emmett has promised to behave and Alice has Seen that he will. Edward had been angry with her too, because she had not forewarned him. He was not appeased by the fact that she knew it would not have consequences.

He is a very serious young man – if they can call themselves men and women, and Esme thinks they can – and Emmett's goofy sense of humor throws him. Yes, too serious maybe, he is young to this life and still bitter about what happened to him. He had dreams, he wanted to be a composer and a performer, he wanted to marry the woman he loved and raise a family. Now he is bound by the secret, he will never have children and the woman he loves will either die before him or become like him. Esme is perceptive enough to understand that the latter is at the same time desirable and dreadful for him.

The Cullen matriarch does not regret becoming a vampire. Her human life ended in tragedy and she had tried to kill herself. But Carlisle gave her a new life. Yes, life. What had been an impossible dream when she was a teenager had become reality. Together they learned about love, together they learned about sex, obliterating the unpleasant memories she had of the despicable Mr. Evenson. And, together, they raised a family, a peculiar one, to be sure, but a family all the same. To deny the vampiric nature isn't easy. She knows, because as a newborn she killed. One needs a lot of help and support to keep abstaining and stick to the lifestyle Carlisle has chosen and proposed to her and the others. She likes to think that if they are now a warm and loving family - one where every member finds in the others the strength he or she needs - is due to her also and not just to her husband, and she is proud of it. And finally, with the addition of the new couple the family is complete, despite one of the pair being human.

Speaking of the human, Bella and the girls are back, apparently they got bored, after a while, and, as they went with two cars, they are home. So now it is time for Esme to give her new daughter a driving lesson. In Italy not everybody has a car and not everybody drives, particularly women, so she needs to learn and obtain a license. A necessity for all members of the family, since they always live in secluded paces and running around on foot is not always the best solution. Plus, they love the speed. Well, not all of them, Jasper hates cars and normally lets Alice drive, although he knows how to. He loved horses when he was a Confederate officer and is not over it, despite the fact that now the equines sense him as a danger and don't want him near them. They don't know that he would prefer to bite a man than a horse, any time. He hunts animals for the love of Alice and for his peace of mind, but horses are psychologically off limits for him. Airplanes on the contrary… he took to them like a duck to water and earned his flying license a few years ago. In fact he is flying the small plane they have rented for the drops.

Bella is quickly learning to drive and soon will be ready to take her test. Edward is happy that Esme is helping her with it as he is too overprotective and, when he tried to give her a lesson, he became totally stressed out. It must be hell, Esme reflects, to know your mate is fragile and continuously exposed to risks… but, apart from her human condition, Bella is very strong and determined. The fact that he decided to take his diploma is due to her, she understands.

The lesson ended, Esme takes the steering wheel and drives to Schrafft's, on the corner of Salina and Fayette: it is a "Japanese" tearoom that, in spite of its name, offers British style scones. Bella adores them and has a fond memory of the English nanny who prepared high teas for her when she was a little girl and had been particularly good.

"How do you like New York?" Esme asks her daughter.

"Still exploring it. It is… a little overwhelming, I must say. I would not want to live in such a big city regularly. I am city born, but Bologna, even Rome are small, compared…"

She fidgets a little and sips the last of her tea. It is obvious that she has something to say.

"Tell me, Esme, after… Alaska," she says the name almost like a question, "what will we do? I mean, Edward, myself and our siblings. Carlisle does what he wants to do, and you do restorations in all our houses, but, is it enough for you? And we 'children', do we get to go to high school and eventually college perpetually just as part of the charade? Cannot we try to be more creative in our endeavors? Do something meaningful, even if we have to stay out of the public eye? I can do translations, and that will fit with a quiet lifestyle, but, what about the others? What about Edward?"

Esme looks at her intently. Carlisle believes that Bella will bring positive change to their life and obviously she is doing it, challenging their modus operandi so far. Can they change it? Could I – she wonders – do restoration work professionally? Put my architectural degree to some use? Save our American heritage that everybody seems so keen at destroying even here in post war Syracuse? And what about my other children?

"I don't know Bella," she answers sincerely, "but let us think about it.

Chapter notes

ONW has been favorited by many, but they are not reading it yet, I think. If you are reading, please send me a review.

Up to now I have given you bits and pieces of the relationship between E&B and their new family, trying to be true to Canon's psychology in a different situation. With the next two chapters I'll be done with it and things will move forward.

Tantra. Well, I thought that if one could discover on his own Tantric lovemaking, it would be Carlisle. Of course in the cavernous library in Volterra there might have been ancient scrolls from the East that he might have perused, while residing there. Mind you, the only knowledge I have about this practice comes from books (particularly one by Jacopo Fo, the playwright and Nobel Prize's son) and the internet (apparently, Sting is a devotee), so don't ask me more, and, if I have it all wrong, forgive me.

As I knew next to nothing about Syracuse and its surroundings, I am very grateful to Serendipitous, Stefanie and her friend for the info provided. The historical tearoom is a detail kindly offered by _Proulxfamily_ at The inaccuracies are all mine.

Pollution. It is too early for the Cullens to start developing ecological concerns, but I am sure they will see the problems coming very early and try to help to preserve nature. I see them anonymously donating to the Sierra Club and, later, to Friends of the Earth, when they'll realize that our planet is quite small and pollution does not recognize borders. In an earlier story – A Vampire in Brussels – dedicated to Friends of the Earth Europe, I imagine that in the 2000s there will be a Cullen Foundation working on sustainability…

British nanny. As told in The Parachutist, well to do Italian families hired those foreign nannies to teach English to their children.

One thing that pissed me off in Twilight is the perpetual and boring repetition of high school and, eventually, college. There are reasons for it, namely the Volturi, but still. I don't think this story will reach that far, but I have planted a seed, here.


	9. Chapter 9 Suspended Life

**Parachutist 2 . Our**** New World**

Chapter 9 - Suspended Life

AN: As usual the images for this chapter can be found on the thread at Twilighted net. Taking off the parenthesis, here is the link

http:/www(.)twilighted(.)net/forum/viewtopic(.)php?f=33&t=17854

_Winter 1947_

Syracuse

**Carlisle**

Esme is in the kitchen, preparing something elaborate that smells awful to me.

"For Bella?" I ask. "What is it?"

"It's Italian. Chicken _galantina_."

"Is it good?"

"Should be. I even found the black truffles to put in…" she continues working, humming happily.

Edward and Bella are coming from New York this weekend. Apparently,_ galantina_ has to be started a couple of days in advance. Our other children are not at home today and the house seems a little empty. We are not going to stay in Syracuse for a long time, so they avoided the high school charade. In fact, they haven't been to school or college for a long time, practically since the war started. In Michigan, Emmett and Jasper kept themselves invisible from the locals, lest someone wondered why the boys were not in uniform.

Jasper spends time doing historical research, he is really pissed off by certain history books recently published. He is planning to set up some alias that would allow for him to publish a book of his own, sometime. Alice is following a sartorial course, now that the New Look fashion revolution she has predicted is about to happen. Esme has talked Rose into cultivating a "victory" garden, part of it under a greenhouse, growing vegetables and bottling them, to be used by families of soldiers, both active and returning. There are a lot of ongoing voluntary schemes they are involved with. That, and the maintenance of our cars, gives Rose enough to do. As for Emmett, he is keeping the house in good order, particularly because a lot of repairs are made necessary by his and Rose's reciprocal enthusiasm. However, he is also looking into modernizing the electric wiring, as the new appliances we are acquiring need a new and safer system to plug in. We can't risk short circuits, as fire is very dangerous for our kind. In any case, the less we need to let outsiders into our home, the better.

Esme puts things in the fridge, shuts it and then out of the blue she says:

"I am worried about Edward and Bella … there is something wrong, I am not sure what."

New York City

**Edward**

Bella is not happy. I can feel it, and it is killing me. When I come back from my courses I find her reading or listening to the radio, but she leaves whatever she is doing and literally jumps me. After hours of separation the need to lose myself in her is overwhelming, so I am always happy to comply with her desire. We make love until she is tired out and then she sleeps like a baby. Thus her living body and my undead one are blissed but, we are not communicating enough, otherwise.

Of course, I am afraid of broaching the subject with her. Is she having second thoughts? Is she bored? What is she doing when she is at her language school? Has she met new, interesting people there? Normal people? She has never introduced anybody to me, in fact we do not have a social life at all. And, what the hell, how is a vampire supposed to have a social life with humans? At Juilliard I am an older student, reputedly sick, a war veteran and a married man. I am too different from the other students, who tiptoe around me, uneasy while not completely understanding why. On most weekends we go to Syracuse to stay with our immortal family, and it is pleasant, but she is sequestered by the women, as I am sequestered by the men, hunting, running, wrestling, playing games and inventing new ones. To use my strength, to move at vampire speed far from human eyes is fun, but not conductive to serious conversations with my Bella.

Today, however, when I get to our apartment with a nice surprise in my pocket, she is not doing anything. The radio is silent, she isn't holding a book and the lack of any smell from the kitchen tells me she has not eaten, something that she always tries to do before I come home.

No, she is curled up on the sofa and staring at the wall. And her eyes are red and puffy. I will not ignore it; we must speak, even if I don't know if I'll come out from it unscathed.

I sit on the sofa too.

"_Cara_, tell me what is wrong."

"We are, Edward, we are… this is all wrong."

What is wrong, us? Does she really mean it? Has she came to her senses finally? Is she leaving me? I am frantic, but try to keep my voice even.

"Please, please, explain."

"I am wrong, I feel on hiatus, not here not there … damn, it is so difficult to explain, but… see, in the English classes I am taking, there is a girl… a French one, whom I could easily become friendly with… but, how can I do it? I'll have to lose her eventually and, if she meets you, she may suspect, after a while… it is too dangerous. So I find myself cold-shouldering her and I don't like it."

Unfortunately, she is making sense. And she has more to add.

"And you and me, whenever we speak of future things, even minimal ones, things that you or I would like to do, it is like… oh it is weird… like we are on different planes, like we have different perspectives. You have eternity, Edward, I am just a short-term human… but you don't allow me to speak of a distant future, you always change track…"

Well, it is not as bad as I thought, but bad enough. I am not sure where her silent mind is going with this, so I try to take time to reflect, lest I blunder.

"_Tesoro_, you have not eaten. Shall I take you somewhere? Then we can continue…"

She reacts with surprising anger.

"Yes, let's go to a restaurant, where you can play with your food, thinking all the time about how much I am enjoying it, and regretting, regretting…"

Abruptly she rises and goes into the kitchen, banging things around until she comes back with a bowl of cereal and milk.

"See, I am eating. Happy now?"

Her irritation is contagious, so I answer without thinking:

"Regretting what? I have no regrets, Bella. You might have them, though."

Christ, speak of blundering, I should not have said this.

She looks at me, long and hard.

"Regretting that you have to change me." Her voice is flat. "It is clear that you don't want to do it."

Hit and sunk.

I am speechless but my brain is working at high speed. Does she think I don't want eternity with her? It is not that. I do want it….eventually. But to terminate her life… I hate the idea; I am not ready for it. I thought we had plenty of time, I wanted… I wanted…

Hell, what a selfish bastard I am. Now I understand what is happening. I wanted her to have more of a normal human life, but it is not possible for her to have that with me. How could I miss it? I have placed such a heavy burden on her shoulders. Since we came to America everything has been about me: I decided to take my music diploma, a way of prevailing over the bad deal fate has bestowed on me, so here we are in New York for the next months, but evidently things are not working out for her. Impatience is a human characteristic, one that I have lost, and even short months must feel too long for her, time stretching painfully…and nobody but me to speak with unguardedly.

Plus… I enjoy her human body, her warmth, even the control I have to exert on myself… it is painful, but it is also exquisite… in doing it I feel she is dominating me, somehow. I must have a masochistic streak, I am sure.

But now I have to put it right, setting myself aside.

Moving slowly, carefully, I get to her side of the sofa, take the empty bowl from her hand and put it on the coffee table. I caress her arm and she does not resist me.

"Bella, _amore,_ I am sorry. You are right and wrong at the same time. Wrong in thinking I don't want you forever, but you already know that. Only, I dread what has to happen, to make it happen. So I was hoping… what a deluded idiot. Shall we leave New York and join the family? I don't really need to get a diploma, it is not that I am going to have a musical career… I can easily suffer a health relapse and retire."

But Bella won't hear of it.

"Edward, don't even think about that. I know how important it is for you. I can endure some months in New York and I do love my English courses. I have just had the blues, and we have not been speaking… I feel better already. Take your diploma and then we will decide what next…"

I think that we can change something, though, and hasten to say it.

"Love, first of all, I need to understand everything… Living on different planes… when you feel like it, please tell me more. I think I get it but, I want you to tell me. Plus, the way we are living is wrong for you; let's try to make things better. If you think you would like to strike a friendship with the French girl, go ahead. It will not be forever, to be sure, but that happens to humans also, we will move somewhere else or she will. You can tell her things and will have to conceal others; however, everybody has secrets. Would you like to try?"

"Yes, maybe. She wants to go to the movies with me."

"Do it then. I think the risk is minimal. And, look, I have another idea." I take out of my pockets two tickets for Carnegie Hall, where Arturo Toscanini will direct, for the NBC broadcast performances, a concert version of Berlioz' Romeo and Juliet. Juilliard gets a lot of invitations and tickets for concerts, and I was sure she would love to go, so I took two of them. The great Conductor, who opposed fascism and refused to execute the regime's beloved song _Giovinezza,_ was ostracized and eventually exiled himself in the US. He is one of Bella's heroes.

"Oh Edward, when is it? Friday night? I'd love to go!"

"Of course, but hear me out. Other people from Juilliard are going too and I'll ask some of them if they want to come here for a drink after the performance. I have in mind a couple of my teachers with their spouses and a fellow student of the final year with whom I sometimes speak with. He lives for music and does not seem to fear me… much."

Elated, if a little scared, Bella starts to plan the evening. So simple, what a fool I have been not to try this before. As long as we are here in New York I'll try to give her a social life, as much as that is possible.

Apparently she has a blue raw silk dress Alice made her buy and now is hanging neglected in the closet, but it will be perfect for the concert, and then she has to shop for assorted drinks, so good that I don't need to fake with alcohol, and there will be little things to eat, but with people standing and serving themselves, so it will not be evident that I don't eat and, oh my God, the house must be cleaned thoroughly_,_ and she must buy flowers, and…

She has gone all Italian hostess on me, and it is so funny. Tomorrow I'll come back with flowers, I tell her. _So stupid that I did not think of doing it before_… and, because I don't want her to fret, I add:

"Bella, breathe! The house is perfect for two students but, if it needs to be cleaned more, I'll do it while you sleep. Vampire, remember? I don't get tired. Are you tired?

No, she is not too tired…

End notes

Yes, they had a tiff. So what? Their unique situation was bound to have some effects. And Edward would not be Edward if the idea of changing Bella was not tormenting him, even if in this story he is not dead set against it. What do you think?

The **NBC Symphony Orchestra** was a radio orchestra established by David Sarnoff of the National Broadcasting Company especially for conductor Arturo Toscanini. The NBC Symphony performed weekly radio concert broadcasts, with Toscanini and other conductors and served as house orchestra for the network, beginning November 13, 1937 and continuing until 1954.

Italian hostesses are like that. I am. My aunt Totti maintains that if there are not substantial leftovers at the end of a party it means that there were not enough food and drinks to start with. And I am sure that, if she could get away with it, Bella would provide something for Edward too, a basket of little furry things as finger food… ;-)


	10. Chapter 10  Bloodlust

**Parachutist 2 . Our New World**

Chapter 10 - Bloodlust

Chapter note:

Some time has elapsed between the previous chapter and this one. With the next posting I'll move the story forward.

Late winter 1947

_Previously:_

_Plus … I enjoy her human body, her warmth, even the control I have to exert on myself… it is painful, but it is also exquisite… in doing it I feel she is dominating me, somehow. I must have a masochistic streak, I am sure._

**Bella**

When we get to Syracuse for the week end we find the family – save for Carlisle, who is working this Saturday and Esme, who is in the kitchen, cooking for me I suppose – sprawled around a Philco television set, the newest Cullen toy, and watching it intently.

"Hi guys, what are you watching?" I ask, sporting the new American accent I am practicing at school.

"Shush, Bella, it's a horror show," Alice says, "It is called Cash and Carry."

As far as I can understand it, the program, a quiz sponsored by Libby's and set in a supermarket, is mostly about food. The host, one Dennis James, asks contestants questions attached to cans of the sponsor's products. Correct answers get money rewards. But what our family is waiting for are the stunts, the current one being about a wife who has to feed her husband blindfolded. Collective groans and exaggerated retching sounds come from our siblings.

"I could do that easily." Edward observes mildly, and the gagging sounds around us get louder. Yes I can believe it, for vampires it's a horror show, but my Edward likes to watch me eating, and help me with it, when I allow it. Why, just a few days ago he called me from school saying I shouldn't cook for myself, because he was bringing something home. And he did, proudly presenting me with cardboard containers of Chinese food, from a place which had just opened near Juilliard. It tasted so different from Italian food, it was so interesting… I was totally surprised and totally captivated. But, I could not use the chopsticks, more things ending down the platter again than in my mouth. Very frustrated I was surrendering and going for a fork, until he said:

"Let me, please. I think I remember how to…" and took the sticks himself. "I loved Chinese restaurants… before," he added. Whatever it was, memory or vampire dexterity, he managed to hand feed me perfectly, while looking at my mouth with darkening eyes. Yes, putting food in my mouth it's an erotic experience for him, and for me too, albeit it is a bit of information I don't want to share with the no secrets family.

When the television show eventually ends I decide I am not impressed by it, it was quite stupid, and I tell Alice, who comes into the kitchen with me and Edward.

"Why yes, the programs are very limited so far," she admits, "but they will improve a lot, in time. Anyway, we are having a western film later this evening. And yesterday we watched a boxing match. Black and white, no smell, considering that one of the boxers was bleeding from a cut on his eyebrow. No way Emmett or Jasper can see a match live but, on the magic box… They loved it!"

"And Carlisle?" I ask, curious.

"All his doctoring instincts came out. No, boxing is not for him…. nor for Esme. The effect on Rose was surprising, though. She took Emmett away before the end."

"Was she disgusted?"

Alice laughs:

"No, quite the contrary…"

Oops, she was aroused, then. Ugh.

"The progress that is coming It is incredible," the pixie adds, coming back to the issue at hand. "I have Seen it. They are testing color broadcasts now; trust me, it will be wonderful."

…-…

**Edward**

Sunday morning. Everybody went hunting with me yesterday night, apart from Alice and Jasper who stayed on to keep Bella company. They will hunt tonight, after we go back to New York. Rosalie is in the garage with Emmett; my car is making a funny noise and she wants to set it straight. I wonder how long I will be able to retain my aging Ford, a present from my human father that is so dear to me. Carlisle is at the hospital to check on a patient he operated on yesterday and Esme went with him. There is an antique fair in a village not far that she wants to see and they'll drive there as soon as he is done. According to Alice, she will find a lamp she has been searching for a long time.

Bella decides that for lunch she just wants a fruit salad, she believes Esme is overfeeding her.

"If this goes on, I'll be the fattest vampire ever!" she has complained more than once.

We are in the kitchen with Alice and Jasper, as fruit is not an unpleasant smell for us, when it happens.

Bella is looking into a drawer:

"There was a knife, perfect for cutting fruit" she says, and suddenly jumps back, with a little cry.

"Crap_, _a knife was put in blade up."

She has cut her hand.

Blood is spilling in the vampires' house. And for one of them it is too much: Jasper. His mind is fragmented, roaring, clouded by a red mist. He sinks into a crouch, baring his teeth at Bella, ready to attack her. I know I have a second or two to react, no more. But, before I get to him, before I destroy him, Alice has leapt onto my back, collaring me. She is surprisingly strong.

"Wait," she hisses, "wait." And she shares with me a vision that starts unfolding in her mind and then happens in reality, immediately after.

Bella is walking toward Jasper, the injured left hand fisted and concealed behind her back, while the other, palm open in front, is making the universal 'stop' sign.

And in fact Jasper is not moving, still as a statue, not breathing even. Bella walks to him, while I watch, mesmerized. She bends to caress his cheek.

"Jasper, it's me, it's your sister, you don't want to hurt me," she says softly.

In slow motion he pulls himself upright, his face relaxing, eyes changing from black to amber.

"Sorry, darlin'," he murmurs, "I am so very sorry. See you later." He darts out of the door, with Alice on his heels.

What the hell happened?

Bella is now trembling all over, a normal reaction, surely. I want to put her in the car as soon as Rose and Emmett return it and drive on until we are back to New York but, she's having none of it. She says the accident is best discussed openly and then forgotten. If we go away now everybody will be saddened, she is sure Jasper is ashamed already, and our departure would devastate him.

"Bella, how did you stop him?" I ask.

"No idea, really, but…" her brow wrinkles in concentration, "but sometimes I feel like… I am protected, like something powerful is encircling me and nothing bad can happen. I felt safe and strong enough to reach him… Yeah, that's it."

The cut on her hand isn't bleeding anymore. I clean the area with a wet napkin and then risk a quick lick, sealing the small wound. No problems, as for other small accidents she has had, I feel no thirst at all. I clean the floor where there is still some drying splatter, and then I soak the napkin in bleach and go outside to dispose of it far from the house. Bella tells me to find Jasper and speak with him about what has happened. She is right and I will do it, no matter if it is embarrassing.

When I reach them Alice says she is going to see Bella and leaves us alone.

"_Thank you Edward, it'll go well,"_ she tells me in her mind.

Jasper and I walk side by side for a while. He is truly contrite.

"It is all my fault," he says, "I should have hunted yesterday."

"I was going to rip your head off," I confess.

His smirk and his mind tell me that he doesn't think I would have found that exactly easy to do. With our military training we would have been well matched. A moot point, to be sure, because if he was conscious enough to fight intelligently, he would probably have recovered his self control.

"Well, Alice stopped me, but Bella stopped you. What was it like?" I really want to know.

"It was very strange. I felt caged, bound. Probably I would have been able to free myself, the bloodlust was very strong, almost overpowering but, the fact that I was poised cleared my mind a little. I felt Alice's concern, your rage and despair and then, when Bella touched me… I came to my senses, I think."

Despite what he almost did and the fact that I wanted to kill him, I can't find in myself to hate Jasper. The detached, almost clinical way he assesses himself and his nature, accepting it while fighting the urges it causes, is very wise. Admirable indeed.

"Still," he adds, "I can't fathom how she was able to do it."

I don't know either, so I say:

"I was going to ask you not to speak about it anymore – it's Bella's wish. Since Rose and Emmett are test driving my car, they did not hear anything and the other two are not home but, I want to tell Carlisle. I have questions for him. Is this a problem for you?"

"Edward, Bella and you are the victims, I am the guilty party. Do whatever you see fit."

I can read he is sincere and doesn't mind. Too much.

…-…

I need to see Carlisle alone and I don't want to be heard, so I ask him if he would like to go with me for a short run, before we drive back to New York. Perceptive as usual, he understands I have some need for privacy and says that, after walking most of the day at human pace, he will surely enjoy it. Everybody else is watching television, even Esme.

I run until I am far enough, then wait for him. Carlisle's mind shows he has questions of his own, and I decide to let him have a go first.

"How are things between you and Bella?"

His love and concern are heartwarming, if my dead heart could get warm. Well, in a way it can. After I told him of our small crisis some weeks ago, he and I had a long discussion about it.

"They are much better, I think. She has a school friend she goes to the cinema or shopping with. They have a lot in common, which is at the same time very nice and very sad. The good thing is that Monique will leave New York. Her fiancé intends to move back to Chicago and they are planning to marry soon. So the break will come naturally. And we are seeing a few people socially. It is a good thing I can drink spirits…"

"However, I feel that to be too isolated was not her only problem…" Now Carlisle is thinking about the core issue, the different human-non human perspectives and my obvious unwillingness to turn her soon.

"I am working on it. I still cannot contemplate her suffering and her change. But we have been able to discuss what we would like to do… afterwards, when her newborn stage has passed. You know what? We will be both studying languages somewhere. She wants to be a translator and I do need to improve my mind reading. It is important for the family too. People think in images but also in words and, when that is in a language I don't know, I am half blind. I noticed it with some of Bella's fellow students, who are foreigners from all over the world."

I can see that Carlisle is indeed aware of the importance of improving my talent, and grateful that I want to do it to better protect our family.

Now it is my turn. I tell him of Bella cutting herself and Jasper's near fall from grace, until something stopped him.

"It was Bella, I believe," I continue, "but how could she do it, stopping a vampire taken by bloodlust?"

I follow Carlisle's complicated mind, images swirling around, very little of it verbalized until he says:

"Remember, Edward? You told me that that your body took orders from hers during intimacy, so that you knew exactly how to be safe with her. And the fact that you stopped feeling thirsty around Bella almost from the beginning… I believe she is gifted and her talent will be overwhelming, once she is changed. I would say she is a Shield, but very different from Renata, Aro's bodyguard. Shield is but a word that covers many different gifts. The guy who sensed yours, Eleazar, might know, only, we can't ever ask him. He serves the Volturi, and the Volturi should not know, ever, of what you and your wife are capable of.

"I wonder if…" and now Carlisle is actually deflecting me, "if she defends herself by enhancing… no, I don't really know. We will see."

I have to be content with this. Certainly I have a lot to think about now. My beautiful wife becoming a powerful immortal? More than everything, I am scared. For her. Talented vampires discovered by the Volterra's coven are either forced into service or…

For this reason there is a hint of desperation when, back in New York, I am making love to her. She senses it, I might be the mind reader, but often she reads me like an open book. She believes that my fear stems from what happened with Jasper, and I don't tell her about my conversation with Carlisle, nor that there is now another layer to my unwillingness to change her.

Endnotes

What do you think of an episode that mirrors the paper cut one in New Moon but with quite a different outcome? Of course, we all know it: Bella is a Shield and its power manifests itself already while human (exactly like it happened with human Edward's random telepathic episodes). We have encountered it previously: in The Parachutist Edward says to Carlisle: "_… but the truly amazing thing, is that my body is getting unspoken messages from hers, like Bella's body is tutoring mine, letting me know what I can do, when something is too much or it is not, when I could hurt her." _He ascribed this phenomenon to Egon's ring and to their mating bond, but of course there is more, as we will see as this story progresses. I am exploring the shield power and it will be more complicated that in Canon. I am not the only author doing it in the AU realm.

After quite a lot of research I choose early TV programs that were broadcasted between 1946 and early 1947 in the New York State area (in the afternoon and evenings only). There is not a lot of information available, so I did my best. I am not sure of the weekdays and hours, but often popular programs were replicated. It works for my story, so I hope it is OK for you.

Bella's bleeding makes me realize I have not addressed the issue of her menses when she is with Edward or near other vampires. Here I go with SM tradition (she spoke of it in an interview). Menstrual blood smells differently, is not enticing and produces no big thirst effect. Albeit I read and enjoyed some naughty stories that say differently, it makes sense to me. How could the Cullen siblings go to classes and sit around girls having their period, otherwise? And I believe that tampax was not much in use at the time. Disposable pads, not to speak of tampons, arrived in Italy only in the mid '50s. In the US maybe earlier, but still... So I have not dealt with it in my plot.


	11. Chapter 11 Long time no see

**Parachutist 2 . Our New World**

Chapter 11 - Long time no see

A/N. As usual, you can find the images for this chapter on the thread on the Twilighted Forums. Taking off the parenthesis, here is the link:

http:/www(.)twilighted(.)net/forum/viewtopic(.)php?f=33&t=17854

One O/s of mine, Confession, received an Emerging Swan Award for best original character. Thanks, everybody.

_From the previous chapter (Carlisle speaking)__:_

"_I believe she is gifted and her talent will be overwhelming, once she is changed. I would say she is a Shield, but very different from Renata, Aro's bodyguard. Shield is but a word that covers many different gifts. The guy who sensed yours, Eleazar, might know, only, we can't ever ask him. He serves the Volturi, and the Volturi should not know, ever, of what you and your wife are capable of."_

Early summer 1947

**Edward**

Today Edward Masen completed his Jury and was awarded his diploma from Juilliard. So now Edward Cullen can have a few days of leisure surrounded by his family. When we come back we are going to store our things and leave our apartment.

On my request, nobody came down to New York for my finals. By the same token, nobody had come in the spring, when I gave, as required, my solo piano performance in front of an audience. It would not have done at all to have this sick older student surrounded by other people looking a little too much like him. My slightly alien appearance was ascribed to Porphyria – nobody knew much about it - but it would have seemed very strange if I had friends and relatives all with the same pathology. Plus, I tried to keep Masen and Cullen very well separated. The recital had included Bach's Italian Concerto, Beethoven Sonata N.32 Op.111, and Liszt Transcendental Etude No.9 in A flat major, all considered very difficult pieces to execute. In addition, as I was graduating in piano and composition, I played some music I had composed myself: Bella's aria "_Come sei veramente_", "Obsession" and "Back to life". When I finished and all my professors came to congratulate me, I knew that I had given a good account of myself, and that the Jury was not going to be a problem three months afterward. I knew also that the vision Alice had of me on the first day we met was true. I had played the piano in front of an audience, something that I never thought could have been possible. Her next vision had been of Bella, ethereally beautiful but with red eyes …

While I am about to leave after the finals – I have already excused myself from participating in the Diploma ceremony - one of my professors asks me to come to his room for a moment. I call Bella, who is waiting for me, and we follow him. Having read his mind, I am not too surprised when he introduces me to a Mr. Lowell, representing a newly founded recording house: "Changing Music Records". The professor had invited him to hear my performance in the spring, without telling me. What Lowell asks me now, however, is a surprise. According to him, in less than a couple of years a new technology will be available, that would allow for a whole concert to be recorded on a single disk. Research is well advanced and CMR wants to be in the forefront of this development, with the additional idea of presenting to the public new composers and modern music, not necessarily dodecaphonic.

Obviously he liked the music I have written. His company, he tells me, would want my work. More of it too, if I would give it to them.

This is elating and frightening; I need to think about it. On the one hand, it wouldn't make any sense for me to have obtained my diploma if I am going to simply disappear forever from the music world. On the other, I know that I have to stay out of the public eye. So I am very torn, and unable to give him a straight answer. I need to speak with Bella and Carlisle first, anyway, so I play shy, take his contact details and promise to give an answer in the future. I give him my New York address, well knowing that it will not be my address much longer. We are going to move from New York, with important decisions looming.

For the moment, however, we have planned an all family hunting expedition, followed by a family graduation party, where I was supposed to play for them, with a mixed repertoire, something light added.

We are sitting in a restaurant to celebrate my diploma. Bella and I have a routine whereby I order something light she would like, such as a salad or an appetizer, then she orders a main course and then eats both of them. Each of us has a glass of wine with the meal, as nobody dares to ask her age, wedding band and all, and I drink some of mine.

Since my discovery, I never pass up the opportunity to drink alcohol, as it is pleasant – albeit the effect is quite different from what humans experience - and it makes me look normal. The family, for some reason, had never tried to actually drink wine or spirits before my discovery. When they were obliged to accept something, they just fake sipped it. I wonder how many potted plants they have wilted in the last twenty years. Things have changed now, I think, remembering the first time I introduced my siblings to that pleasure in Philadelphia. Knowing that we can actually drink alcohol makes us keep our houses well stocked. It has helped me to mingle more easily with the acquaintances we have acquired during our stay in New York since we decided that we could risk a limited social life. I know that the family is doing the same and even experimenting with it.

While Bella eats, our thoughts are occupied by my encounter with Mr. Lowell and his proposal.

"What are you going to tell him?" she asks.

"Hell if I know. What do you think I should do?"

"I think you should give it a try and see if they actually will make one of those new records with your music. Edward Masen can be a reclusive, ill composer, with no exposure but for a record. Then you see what happens and if you can continue or not," Bella suggests.

"I'll speak with Carlisle too. It is not only us that I could endanger…"

My music will have to be played by somebody else, though, and I don't relish the idea at all. What if… I imagine myself in a recording studio… What will Alice have to say about it? Well, better to postpone these thoughts until we are reunited tomorrow.

Bella has a banana split for dessert. She is amazed about how common bananas are in America, as in Italy they were an expensive treat, having completely disappeared during the war. While she digs in happily, I reflect on the decisions we now have to make. Is she really ready? Every time I see her eating something with gusto, every time I watch her sleeping, every time I realize she is dreaming - and now they are mostly happy dreams - I can't fight the thoughts drumming in my head: _no more, no more, this all is going to end for her, soon, very soon, no more… undead, a still heart, throat aching forever… oh my love, why are you doing this for me?_

For this reason, when we are in our bed later, I find myself a little frenzied in my lovemaking. Her warmth, her fragility, her pulse - it is all so precious to me, I love that I have to use restraint. This is the way we are and it makes me happy: it is a small price to pay to have her alive in my arms.

A few days ago something happened and, while she sleeps afterwards, I recall what we did that night:

_I was__ making love to her in my favorite position when I was taken by a naughty whim. So I moved the hand that was kneading her delectable bottom while I went at it and brought a finger to her mouth. _

"_Suck," I order__ed and she complied with pleasure. _

_Now the wet finger went__ not where it normally went, to bring forth her release and precipitate mine. No, it went to her other entrance, the one that is often considered taboo._

"_Oh, Edward, what are you doing? _

"_Shh, let me try something," I said, not stopping my main act. I teased her a little, then carefully inserted only the tip of my finger, caressing, teasing some more. Very soon, she was moaning louder, her breath catching, her body flushing, then she shuddered and came apart, screaming my name. I followed._

"_You liked it," I affirmed, grinning. _

"_Oh God, yes, yes! A lot."_

"_Good. I want all of you… and I will have it, some day, when you are…"_

"_Less breakable," she concluded for me._

_I mused on the possibilities that would open for us. I wanted them, but I dreaded what would have to pass, before that. _

"_I hate what I must do to you first," I confessed for the umpteenth time. _

"_Edward, don't go that way," she chided me. "You know that I am ready now."_

_To savor her blood__, to make her mine in the most extreme way - the animal in me was excited again, despite the concern, the guilt - particularly because now she was aroused too, and not sleepy at all. _

"_I don't need to be changed to try something myself," she said softly, "but, would you like it?"_

_Now, what… Oh…would she really? Would I like it? Was I bent that way__? No, never with a man but, my body was her playground. She owned it and could do whatever she liked with it._

_So she took me in her mouth, coated her fingers with her wetness and went exploring where she never went before, sliding her hand under me. I tried to relax as much as I could those lower regions, but she probably had to use quite a lot of strength to get in, just an intimate soft caress to me. Then her two fingers moved with the same rhythm of her mouth. God, I felt it. She was massaging something inside… I never suspected that such a sensitive spot existed, till a powerful wave of pleasure took me, drowned me and I was undone. _

To enjoy this act - I considered later – does not mean that I have unsuspected sexual proclivities. It is just that I am Bella-bent; I am whatever she wants me to be. But, if we can have these delights together, why should I change her? I know why and still I am not resigned to the idea. To think of her in pain is insufferable.

_(A few days later)_

Personal items packed and stored, we have left our apartment for good and are driving toward Syracuse. When we are midway, we stop for gas and a drink for Bella. Not a meal, as Esme will have surely cooked for her. My Italian wife is becoming quite addicted to Coke.

Now she has gone to the toilet and I am waiting for her outside when another car pulls up, also stopping for gas. A man and a woman get out, very good looking, pale, olive skinned, dark haired… and with an un-beating heart. Vampires. I panic, I want to go inside to prevent Bella from coming out but, the man is looking at me intently. And I know him. He is the third man in the church, the day I met Damon and Guido and my human life ended. He is the Volturi's talent scout: Eleazar.

Endnotes

What will this meeting mean for them? What do you think? Reviews?

Just to be clear, I researched for over a month about music school programs and what Edward would study there. I got some information, but the Juilliard's Librarian never deigned to answer my queries, so what I have written below might be not accurate enough. It would be, if he went to an Italian _Conservatorio_, but in the U.S. things might have been different back then, or may be different now. So please forgive me if I have made mistakes. My thanks go to Serendipitous and her musical family, to Terenzio, Bonaldo and Prof. Paola A.

I am shamelessly making Edward compose the music of Giovanni Allevi., who in the late '40s was not even born. In The Parachutist he composes "_Come sei veramente"_, when he thinks he should leave Bella so she can have a normal, happy human life (Yeah, yeah we know all about this, don't we?) and now I am continuing here. Most of Allevi's sonatas are on YouTube.

Older student: Edward was changed at 23, but now his chronological age would be around 25, a rather advanced age, therefore, to be getting a college degree. However, after the war his was not the only case, surely.

Beginning in 1939, Dr. Peter Goldmark and his staff at Columbia Records undertook efforts to address problems of recording and playing back narrow grooves and to develop an inexpensive, reliable consumer playback system. In 1948, the 12-inch (30 cm) Long Play (LP) 33⅓ rpm _microgroove_ record album was introduced at a New York press conference held on June 21, 1948.


	12. Chapter 12  Visitors

**Parac****hutist2 – Our New World**

Chapter 12 - Visitors

A/N As usual, the images for this chapter are on the thread at Twilighted net

http:/www(.)twilighted(.)net/forum/viewtopic(.)php?f=33&t=17854

_Previously_

_A man and a woman get out, pale, olive skinned, dark haired… and with unbeating hearts. Vampires. I panic, I want to go inside to prevent Bella from coming out but, the man is looking at me intently. And I know him. He is the third man in the church, when I met Damon and Guido and my human life ended. He is the Volturi's talent scout: Eleazar._

**Edward **

He also has recognized me; in his mind I see the small church in Italy, Damon and Guido… I am beside myself, but I know my priority: Bella.

"Please wait," I say, keeping my voice steady "I think we should speak, but first I have to do something… I'll be back in a few..." and I dart inside. Bella is walking across the diner, coming toward the exit. I stop her.

"Don't come out," I mouth, "vampires." She blanches.

"Not immediately dangerous," I reassure her, still murmuring, "but it is crucial that they don't see you with me. Please sit down, order something, settle the bill as soon as you are served and I'll try to send them on their way." Yeah, fat chance, I know I am deluding myself and her, but I need time to regroup. Bella protests, obviously worried for me, but I insist.

"Nothing is going to happen, trust me. **If **they don't see you, that is." She is not happy, but sits at a table. I go outside again.

The two vampires are waiting. I see that they don't know what I was doing in the diner, fortunately. The female is hiding behind her companion's back. She is nervous and I realize that they too are scared. Of me. A young, strong vampire a couple of years past his newborn stage.

Eleazar's mind is not easy to read, a whirlwind of questions circling in it, but the first thing he says is:

"So you are a telepath, I was right."

"Yes." I answer simply.

"And you have amber eyes."_Not a killer of humans,_ he thinks, making an abrupt decision and removing his sunglasses for a second. His eyes are not ruby red, but a strange orange color - exactly as mine were in the first weeks after I stopped drinking human blood. He must be changing his diet, then. Suddenly I see Carlisle's face in his thoughts and that of an unknown beautiful blonde female with butterscotch irises. Of course he knows my mentor and father, who has resided with the Volturi in the past. I wonder who the vegetarian beauty is.

On the one hand this is easing my concerns a little, on the other I know that I will have to lie about many things. We exchange our names, then I see his next question and I am prepared.

"What happened to Damon and Guido, the two warriors I was with?" he asks.

"I have no idea," is my answer, "they changed me and I had just emerged from my transition when they fought, I don't know why. While they were distracted, I ran away. Nobody followed me."

He seems to believe my story. In his mind I see that he had always considered Damon unstable, an oddball. He thinks that, whatever the reason for their clash, one killed the other and then was too scared to return to Volterra. Aro never sent a tracker after the vanished warriors, because they were not particularly valuable to him. Good to know. As it is difficult for him to conceive that a newborn could fight and destroy two seasoned immortals, he finds my story credible.

However, I am not off the hook. Well groomed and well dressed, driving a car and obviously in full control, I am nothing similar to the feral nomad I would be, if I had lost my sire the moment I was created. And, he is asking himself, how did I manage to come to America? And why? Of course he knows nothing about me; he senses talents, does not read minds. Well, here I can tell him most of the truth, if not everything, even before he asks.

"When we had our… unfortunate encounter," I begin, letting him understand that I have not forgiven him and his companions, "I was trying to get back to the Allied lines after a mission. I was an American officer then. In my confusion and utter desperation I remembered Carlisle Cullen, an Army surgeon I had met in Salerno. Things that did not add up with him, and some weird images I had seen in his mind – as you probably know I had random telepathic episodes even as a human – made me suspect he could be a vampire too, so I looked for him. I was lucky and I found him very soon. He taught me everything I needed to know about being a vampire. And he also told me that I could feed in a different way. It took me some time to accept his... diet, but eventually I did. He helped me to come back to my country. I belong to his coven, now."

"So Carlisle was in Italy during the war? As a military doctor? Amazing. He is an extraordinary person, isn't he?"

I can see that he has relaxed completely now, and so has the female with him.

"I came to America to meet Carlisle, in fact I had no idea he was recently in Italy. I did not know how to find him, until a common friend gave me directions." Eleazar continues, and again I see the gorgeous vampire in his mind. "I was about to call and ask him if our visit would inconvenience him."

Damn, damn, damn. I can barely contain a growl. I can't go to Syracuse with Bella, now. Well, he arrived at the gas station after me, so he does not know my direction and I can make him believe that I was returning to New York, not the other way around. I am about to tell him this when there is noise from inside the diner, screams and people pouring out.

_What the hell_…_Bella _… No, it is nothing too serious, just a grease fire on the grill behind the counter, and the staff is ordering everybody out for safety, while they are extinguishing it. I try to get in and save my wife from the mini stampede but, I am too late. Carried by the flow she is just coming out of the door. Shit.

With a feeling of impending doom I take her hand and walk with her toward the two vampires. Here goes nothing, I have to introduce her.

"This is Bella, my wife," I say. I can't see their eyes behind the sunglasses, but I am sure they are popping out. Eleazar's thoughts are pretty obvious.

"_His wife? A human? How can he…? How could Carlisle allow this… The__y know the rules… How reckless…"_ and so on.

Obviously he knows I am reading his mind, so he retreats into the safety of good manners.

"It is a pleasure to meet you. And this, as you surely surmised, is my wife, Carmen."

I am at loss about what to do now, so I too resort to politeness. It will do… for the time being.

"Carlisle will be pleased to see you, I am sure," I say. What I am also sure of is that I need them to come to our house now. I have to keep them under my control.

Or perhaps I should just kill him and his wife, thus solving the problem radically. The primal need to protect my mate is devastating, I can't believe I am seriously contemplating murder, but I am. I know that Carlisle would never condone it, though. Well, unless absolutely necessary to protect Bella, I hope.

If he wants to betray us, Volterra is but a telephone call away. One, however, that he would not find easy to do from a diner. Intercontinental connections take hours and the number of coins necessary would be staggering. So maybe I can manage the situation for a while. In his mind I don't see anything indicating a wish to contact the Volturi. He is just anticipating his meeting with Carlisle and is very eager to have it. Whatever else he wanted to discuss with him, however, is now obscured by the discovery he has just made, namely that the Cullen coven has a human in its midst.

Well-mannered to a fault, now Eleazar proposes that we go ahead of them, so that we can tell Carlisle of their impending visit. He and his wife will linger a while on the road and will come sometime after our arrival. Indeed, I want to speak with the family as soon as I can. Alice has probably Seen everything by now and there is so much to decide before the two vampires from Italy get to the Cullens' home. But, If they don't come, I'll go after them.

Eventually we separate. While I drive, Bella and I discuss what has happened. We can't fathom the consequences yet and we tell each other that we will have to play by ear. What is the reason Eleazar has come to see Carlisle? Was he sent by his masters? Is he here on his own? They are all important questions and we don't know the answers. When I say 'discuss', I mean that I go on rambling, because Bella is extraordinarily silent. She is musing, very absorbed, and does not tell me what she is really thinking, what she is making of this unexpected and dangerous disruption.

When I pull up in front of the house Alice is already on the door; she has been waiting for us. Her voice is anguished when she tells us that she Saw our encounter with Eleazar and Carmen only at the last moment.

"You could have stopped at any gas station, it was just random, and so the vision was too late. I tried to call you, to prevent you coming here, but you had already left New York, of course. I am so sorry. I told Carlisle and the others. Everybody is waiting to discuss what happened and what to do when they arrive here."

I assure her it is not her fault and we get inside.

Everybody is sitting at the dining room table. Obviously a family meeting has been scheduled for the moment we arrived. Bella and I take our places at the table.

"Carlisle, tell me about Eleazar," I say, adding - albeit the facts are already known by the others, thanks to Alice - "he knows about Bella."

"He was the one friend I had when I was living in Volterra, apart from Aro," is his answer. "His diet was the customary one, of course, but he was intrigued by mine and never tried to convince me to change it, while Aro was nagging at me all the time, which is, by the way, the reason why I eventually left. "

"Well, he has started feeding from animals now," I tell them, and from their surprise, I understand that Alice missed the moment he showed me his eyes.

"He is mated," I continue, "with a female who is, like him, of Hispanic descent."

"Now, this is another surprise," Carlisle exclaims, "he was **very** unmated once, and rather promiscuous… I wonder what happened to him."

This question is answered some time later, when our visitors eventually arrive. Eleazar would have preferred to see Carlisle alone, but he realized I would read his mind anyway, so now I am sitting with them in my adoptive father's study.

If my reason to embrace the vegetarian lifestyle was shame, his was love, it appears. His mate refused to drink human blood. He found Carmen under a pile of bodies in the feeding room after a Volturi-style banquet. I have never seen one, thank God. And, now that I see it in his memory, the horror of it is indescribable: blood and mauled corpses everywhere. Once again I rejoice that I was able to destroy my sire and his companion and was never brought to Volterra as they intended.

But Carmen was not dead yet, he tells us, she had not been completely drained and had been discarded casually, since somebody else had smelled tastier to her predator. So, she was turning. This was not an unheard of occurrence, apparently but, if somebody survived the immediate slaughter for any reason, he or she was not allowed to become a vampire but terminated swiftly, unless it was discovered to be gifted. And this was the reason Eleazar had come in, as he normally did not take part in the massacre, preferring to satisfy his thirst privately and more humanely, as far as that was possible. In general, before a new group of humans was brought into the feeding room he was supposed to assess if there was somebody talented, who should be changed and not drained, but he had to do it quickly, as the waiting vampires were thirsty, so he did a second run, if somebody was still living and changing.

Poor Carmen had no talent he could discern but, from the moment he saw her, he knew she was his destiny.

While Eleazar is speaking I get glimpses of Carmen's thoughts, images mostly, mirroring what he is telling us, but I can't understand the language she is thinking in. So it is easy to tune her out, because I am concentrating on her mate's tale…

Endnotes

No cell phones in the '40s, therefore Alice can See, but to alert timely is often impossible. I am going to make use of this difficulty in later chapters (grins evilly). What will be the consequences of Eleazar's visit?

Please tell me or review anyway.

Ha, Carmen is thinking in Catalonian, not in Spanish (Her mother having been from Cataluña, she was raised bilingual, sometimes thinking in Spanish and other times in Catalonian), and her tragic story will be told in the next 2 chapters…They were first published as a future take but now I have removed them. If you have not read Carmen's story yet, I promise you'll enjoy it.


	13. Chapter 13 Carmen's Life

Parachutist2 – Our new world

Chapter 13 Carmen's life

A/N This and the next chapter were originally posted as future takes with the title Carmen's Story. Now they have been deleted, as they belong here. Since some of you may already have read them, I'll post the next chapter after the week end.

There is next to nothing about Carmen in the Twilight Lexicon, apart from her being Eleazar's mate. But she had a fascinating biography that deserved to be told and she wanted me to tell it. You know how characters can get forceful and go looking for an author… After all, I am from Pirandello's country|

Special thanks to Serendipitous, to Stefanie, my perfect Beta and to Alberto B, my history resource extraordinary

**Carmen**

Some of my human memories have faded, but not those of the last weeks in Sant Arnau, of my lost brother, of my trip to Italy with the Fascist bastard, nor that of the oh-so-nice lady who told me to come to work for her in her small _trattoria_ in Volterra …till my death in the Volturi palace, where I was consumed by flames and turned to ice.

My father was Spanish, my mother Catalonian, and proud of her heritage. We lived in Madrid but when the Civil war broke and the city was under attack, my mother and I left to go back to Sant Arnau, her village in Cataluña near the French border. My father had died of pneumonia some time before and my brother Pablo, Pau in Catalonian, had joined the POUM - _Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista _and was already fighting with the Republicans. We saw him infrequently, and I missed him so much; my big brother, my protector, the one who could spin stories so wonderful and funny ….

My mother survived my father by only three years and then she too left me. A broken heart more than any specific illness, I think. I was all alone, but I was lucky that I found a job in the small winery of Monserrat Agosti, my only friend there, as I had spent most of my time nursing my mother. Fortunately for my employer, her shop was not big enough to be considered for collective ownership – well, state ownership, rather - as other businesses were at the time. I had no fiancé, I worried continuously for Pau, and I was not looking for any man. When Cataluña was conquered by General Franco and his German and Italian allies, however, things changed for the worse.

One night Pau arrived at my door, hungry, broken, penniless and in grave danger, with no safe haven in sight. He wanted to pass the border into France, but did not know how to do so safely. And I did not know how to help him.

I kept him concealed in the house. He had to live in darkness, shutters closed, and he could not move while I was working, as we had nosy neighbors who would wonder about noises from a supposedly empty house. My brother was going mad and I feared he would do something reckless.

Sant Arnau was occupied by Italians of the CTV Corps, militarily organized volunteers that is, sent by Mussolini to support Francisco Franco. In their spare time the occupants were frequent visitors to the winery, and so I met Sandro Buti, a fascist from Tuscany who was in charge of supplies' distribution. I discovered later that he had a lot of business going under the table. He noticed me and managed to shoo away his comrades' unwelcome interest. His was unwelcome too and it became very bothersome. I evaded his requests to know where I lived, I refused invitations and I did not react to his innuendos, which were becoming dirtier and dirtier.

But he was powerful and I had no power. Sandro discovered where I lived and put my house under discreet, unofficial surveillance. And finally he challenged me: he was sure I kept a Republican lover in my house. I contemplated for an instant Pau's ruin and mine – there was really no time to plan anything – and then took the course that could possibly save him, even if I had to pay the price.

So I explained that I had a brother, not a lover, that he had had a minimal role in the civil war, he was just a hot head and had no political connections anymore, after the Communists had turned against the Anarchists and the Trotskyites. He was totally disillusioned and simply wanted out.

Albeit not completely true, the story went down well. Sandro saw the opportunity to make me stop denying him and the bargain was struck. He would help Pau to escape and I…

I had to sleep with him, and I did.

I have forgotten most of the details of his… lovemaking? No, I can't use that verb. In English, one of the languages I learned quickly after my change, they would say "fuck", I suppose, and _follar_ is what I use in Catalonian or Spanish, even if I would never say it aloud.

Eleazar taught me what it means to make love; Sandro left me disgusted, sore and totally unsatisfied. The fact that he had no clue on how to pleasure a woman makes me very happy in retrospect. I wanted nothing from him in that sense. Anyway, I was his mistress and, discovering I had been a virgin, his passion for me escalated. He wanted me to come to Italy with him, as the Italian militia was soon to leave. He was married, to be sure, but had an estranged wife and he would set me up in a nice little apartment, he said. I accepted, but I was not such a good actress and my lack of enthusiasm must have showed. That caused Pau's downfall.

The plan for his escape was underway. Due to his shady deals, Sandro knew one Felip Cardona, a man who helped wanted people to pass the border. It cost money, obviously, because some of the Italians occupants needed also to be paid, so that they would turn a blind eye. But, according to Sandro, the guy had to repay some favors and would do it for free. When I told Pau of the plan, he immediately understood what had happened, that he would owe his salvation to a fascist, a fascist I was going to bed with to ensure it. He stormed, called me all sort of names,_ puta_, whore, being the mildest of them, with the radio blaring at full volume to cover the noise he was making. I spent the night crying. At dawn he came to my room, knelt near my bed and asked for my forgiveness. He said that as soon as he was settled he would let me know where he was – we could use Monserrat to send letters to each other – and I promised I would leave the Italian and join him. He left to go to Felip's house and that was the last time I ever saw him.

I discovered the truth only much later, in Tuscany. I was recovering from the abortion a friend of Sandro, a doctor, had performed on me. Apparently it was not the first time he had done that for trusted friends. Of all that happened in my human life, this is the thing I regret most. I am sterile now for eternity. But I didn't want Sandro's child, I wanted to be free to leave him, so I did not fight when he told me I had to do it.

The doctor was not a butcher, he even anesthetized me, so I did not suffer. Only, the effect of the anesthesia dissolved earlier than they thought. Thus, I was able to listen to a conversation between Sandro and his friend, and it shattered me.

Felip Cardona did indeed ask for money to pass people through the border and my brother had none. Sandro could have easily paid, but he hadn't dreamed of doing so. Now he thought that Pau had conveniently disappeared in some unmarked grave.

"One less fucking Red," he said. I believe he must have realized that I would have left him eventually, if I thought I could join Pau.

I went into hysterics, which were credited to the aftermath of the abortion. I managed not to let Sandro know that I saw him for the murdering bastard he was and I immediately planned to leave him. The idea of letting him touch me again was abominable.

Grieving and still weak from the abortion, I found myself stranded in a seedy coffee shop near Florence's train station. I had only the money Sandro gave me every week for food shopping, plus my mother's modest jewels - the few I had received from my so-called lover I had refused to take with me.

I knew I should be looking for work, I had a regular passport and a sojourn permit, courtesy of Sandro, so it should not have been too difficult, but I was afraid that he would trace me.

In the coffee shop I was subtly approached by a woman. She was very pretty, quite pale and wore sunglasses, as an illness had left her too sensitive to the daylight, she said, even if today was cloudy. The woman asked me if I was recovering from a virulent flu, as she was. I realized then I must have been looking quite a lot like her, albeit my waned countenance had other causes. She had a beautiful voice and everything about her was very appealing. Fool that I was, I confided in her, not telling her everything, but a lot.

A few hours after that I was travelling with her to Volterra. Everything was going to be perfect; I was saved. Her family owned a small restaurant, I was going to work there. Nobody would need any paperwork for the moment, so the man I was escaping from was not going to find me.

The woman, of course, was one of the Volturi lures, and was doing her job quite well, namely looking for people lost and at the end of their tether, like I was. I don't remember much about my arrival to Volterra, she must have slipped something in a coffee she offered me during the trip. Later on I woke in something that looked like a dungeon, but I might have been dreaming. I heard some voices speaking in an unknown language that, much later, I was told was Polish.

The next thing I remember was being marched with other people along underground corridors to get to a place where – the guards leading us in the dark told us – everything would be explained.

And it was, in a way, when inhumanly handsome people with red eyes fell on us. Somebody grabbed me, a cold mouth was on my neck, I felt the sharp pain of a bite… I screamed and screamed, but then I was thrown on the floor, I felt my shoulder break and I fainted.

I believe now that what saved me from being completely drained was that my blood was tainted by a medicine the abortionist had given me, to prevent hemorrhaging. I was still taking it and it affected my… flavor, so I was discarded for someone tastier.

Pain. I was burning. I vaguely realized I was not lying anymore on a stone floor but on something softer. But it was a scant comfort, as my insides were on fire. Was this Hell? Possibly. I just had an abortion, a most heinous sin, according to the Church. Would I burn forever? The very idea made me writhe more, cry more… But, there were two places where I was not burning, where I was actually cool. Something cold, two hands, I realized, were pressing on my flesh, on my cheek and on my breast and a soft voice was speaking to me, near my ear. It was speaking in Spanish:

"_Tranquila, pequeña_, don't fight it, don't resist, It will pass... it will pass…"

I know now that I burned for three days, like it normally happens, but it seemed an eternity of never ending agony. However, being told that it would pass helped, somehow. It held despair at bay. And I was not alone: the man with the cold hands was with me all the time, speaking to me of everything and nothing. I could not really follow his words, but the melodious sound of his voice distracted me. Sometimes he applied wet cold compresses to my body, and that dulled the pain a little. Sometimes, blissfully, I passed out. Finally the excruciating burn slowly receded, my extremities became cold and only the center of my chest was still burning. My heartbeat got louder and louder, it boomed in my ears and then…. it simply stopped. I realized I was dying, I would see Pau again maybe… or maybe not, because surely I was damned… and then all went black.

Endnotes

Did you like it? If so, please tell me, I could do with more reviews, Sigh.

In the next chapter you will know Eleazar better, and love him, hopefully. (And don't worry, after that we will be again with Edward and Bella.)

Cataluña or Catalonia is a region in Southern Spain, with Barcelona as the capital, where they even speak a different language. Catalonians have fought for centuries for independence from Spain, albeit not as violently as the Basques. They now have won for themselves special rights and self governing statutes, so the situation appears to be satisfying. It was not the case in the early part of last century, though.

Sant Arnau does not exist in reality.

A_ trattoria_ is a modest, family owned restaurant.

Just to set the timeline straight: Carmen arrives in Italy in the late spring of 1939, at the end of the Spanish Civil war. A few months later Hitler invades Poland and WW II starts. Italy, however, will get into the fry only one year later, in 1940, cowardly invading France, already invaded by the Germans. Carmen leaves Sandro a few weeks before that. I am postulating here that Polish citizens who for any reasons happened to be in Italy at the time, were in dire straits. They did not want to go back to conquered Poland and could not expect much comfort from the Italian authorities. For the war duration the Volturi would send around their lures to collect this kind of displaced persons with offers of help. Oh, they had wonderful banquets, during the war …

If you are not familiar with the Spanish civil war, you are maybe puzzled by a few things I wrote above. I can't give a summary here, I am sorry, but if you just Google it you'll find plenty of information. It was a brutal war and, while the Republican government was legitimate and absolutely right, both sides were responsible for atrocities.

_Tranquila__, pequeña_: Peace, little one.


	14. Chapter 14 Carmen's Death

**Parachutist 2 – Our New World**

Chapter 14 - Carmen's death.

A/N I am updating earlier because Carmen's story was published some time ago as a standalone.

_Previously_

_My heartbeat got louder and louder, it boomed in my ears and then …. it simply stopped. I realized I was dying, I would see Pau again maybe… or maybe not, because surely I was damned… and then all went black. _

**Carmen**

I was awake and the pain was gone. I opened my eyes and was assaulted by sensations, so many that it took a while to get adjusted to them. There was no light in the room where I was, but I could see everything in it, the colors bright, brighter than I ever saw before. I could also perceive a delicious smell I could not identify… I closed my eyes again, inhaling. Then something touched me, hands that were warm. I remembered cold hands soothing me. What was this?

I jumped from the bed, crouching against the wall. There was a man in the room, pale and olive skinned. In his beautiful face the eyes were red like the ones of the monsters who attacked us in the subterranean hall. Terrified, I wanted to scream, but from my throat came out a sound that was… inhuman. Like a growl.

"_Tranquila_" he said, "_tranquila_. I am not going to hurt you." He moved towards me. He was not very tall, but lithe and deadly like a bull fighter. As they often do, his black hair was kept out of his face in a short ponytail. He stopped a few paces from the corner where I crouched.

My throat ached and I realized I was terribly thirsty. It suddenly became the most important thing in the world.

"I need to drink," I said, with a voice I did not recognize as mine, but it came from my mouth.

"Of course. Wait for me and don't leave the room, I'll be back." He was out of the door in a second, but I was able to see his movement, fast as he was.

When he came back he was carrying a man, bound and unconscious.

…-…

I looked at the corpse at my feet. I had killed the man and sucked his blood. An uncontrollable instinct had compelled me to do it as soon as his smell hit me.

"Why?" I was trembling. I was not thirsty anymore, but the horror of what I had done was worse than the thirst.

So he explained. He introduced himself as Eleazar, asked my name, and told me what I had become and what we were. He said that, because I was not killed immediately, the venom inserted by the vampire who bit me had caused my transformation. I was meant to die in any case, but he had pleaded his masters for me and I had been accorded a reprieve. They had, in fact, given me to him. He had served them loyally for centuries.

"But you will be mine only if and when you'll want me," he added, seeing me wince. "I have done my share of what humans would call crimes, but I never forced an unwilling woman."

This was too much to process. I wanted to cry, but I discovered that I couldn't. I did not want to belong to any man, and most of all, I did not want to be a monster like he, and the others in this horrific place, were.

"I will not kill anybody anymore," I declared. "You took me by surprise, but it will not happen again."

"You'll have to feed, eventually," he said mildly.

"I'll starve, I want to die anyway. I cannot exist like this." I was practically screaming.

"Problem is, our kind doesn't die of starvation," he insisted, "only, you'll go out of control and will end up attacking somebody in plain sight, and that is not allowed, particularly here in Volterra. You will be punished."

I had killed my unborn baby and an innocent prisoner. It was too much already.

"I don't care," I said, "I. Will. Not. Kill. Again. Watch me."

He did not add anything more.

…..-….

Some time passed. My gentle jailer showed me his bathroom so that I could wash, a curious bathroom with no toilet – not that I had any desire to use it, which was weird - and he brought me my suitcase, that must have remained in the cell I had been put in when, drugged and lost, I arrived here. I did not speak much, but Eleazar did, telling me all that there was to know about vampires and about the Volturi, a sort of government of the immortal world. I discovered that I too now had scary red eyes, that I could not sleep, and that my normal bodily functions had stopped, which explained the toilet mystery. Undead, I would exist forever, unless another vampire terminated me. I hated it all, a never ending nightmare.

My thirst grew anew and Eleazar could feel my distress. Many times I caught him looking at me with a pained expression. I kept my face impassive and my eyes averted but, I felt his gaze on me all the time. And I realized I was seeing passion and desire. It terrified me, because he was so attractive: I had never met a more beautiful man. But his red eyes and what they implied would not allow me to give in. I started to believe that I could escape from the room where I was confined. He was strong, but I was strong too, according to what he had told me. Not controlling my strength, I had broken things in the room by mistake. Once I was out of it, what would I do? Before I could put any plan into action, one day he said he was going out.

"Please, please don't run away," he pleaded. "It will surely end badly if you do. You are a newborn, so it is not allowed and I am responsible for you. Wait for me, I want to help, I want to try something." Eleazar touched my cheek lightly, less than a caress, and was gone.

I thought I would not heed him, but in his words I saw a glimmer of hope, so I waited. When he came back he had a bag, with a medical glass container in it. It was full of a red fluid.

"Blood from the AVIS, in the hospital. It is donated and nobody died for it. You can drink." I was at the end of my tether, desperate with thirst, so I decided to believe him and I drank. The taste was strange, unpleasant, but my immediate need was soothed.

"This is not going to be enough and the doctor I know will not be able to give me more at short notice," he told me. "But I want to take you out of Volterra for a few hours this night, and with this you should be able to keep your control, if we meet humans."

At night he gave me a dark mantle, donned one himself, and we left the room together. We walked along narrow corridors without seeing anybody and we exited the palace from what was obviously a secondary entrance. He had a key to open it. The roads were deserted and no smell of human blood was taunting me.

"Now we run," he said. He took my hand in his and we ran together out of town. We went so fast, it was almost like flying. It was exhilarating and for half an hour I only thought about the pleasure I found in it.

When we stopped we were into thick woods.

"A British vampire who lived here a long time ago did not kill humans, he hunted animals," Eleazar said, "I thought it very strange and unnatural, but he didn't seem to experience any ill effects from it. Sometimes I went with him, as I was curious and he had become a friend. He is not even the only one to abstain. There are a few others who have made the same choice. Well, here there should be boars. I want you to try and catch one: I'll help you. We have to stand still, use our sense of smell and listen to noises."

I had no idea of what to do, but eventually I started to hear the forest's sounds, birds, small animals, rodents, snakes … and then a peculiar smell and soft oinks.

Boars, indeed. Agile like a panther Eleazar jumped, took one easily, despite the terrible tusks the beast had, and snapped its neck, bringing it to me.

I was so excited for the alternative he was offering that I reacted immediately, my sharp teeth penetrated bristles, hide and sinews, and I drank the animal's blood. It was… wonderful, not so much for the flavor –while drinking I didn't allow myself to remember how the man I killed had tasted – but because I could feed without being a murderer.

Later on I managed to catch a couple of boars myself, my senses taking over and telling me what to do.

Sated, happier than I had been in a long time, I looked at him. His eyes were not red, but almost black as he slowly approached. His strong arms encircled me and he was about to kiss my lips. I froze, fighting two different urges, to run from him or to embrace him myself. I felt his taut body shudder and then he released me.

"I am sorry," he said, "but to see you taking down the boar was… come, we had better go back to Volterra."

While we ran I tried to deal with my confused thoughts. First of all, I was grateful. He had pleaded for my life… well, existence, had tried to help me with my change, and, when I told him that I didn't want to drink human blood, he had respected my wish. In all probability, had he brought me another victim, I would not have been able to resist, despite my bravado. Then he had procured donated blood for me and showed me how to hunt animals. I had seen the other inhabitants of this palace only at their worst, when they were feeding, but he seemed quite different from them. Plus, he was devastatingly handsome. And he wanted me.

I had been the mistress of a repulsive man, what difference would it make if I gave myself to Eleazar in gratitude? I was sure it would not be as bad as it had been with Sandro, that pig.

When we were back in his rooms, I decided to take the plunge. I was very messy, my clothes ruined and bloodied, so I went into the bathroom, washed and did not dress again, but came out enveloped in a big towel. As I was in front of him I let it fall down, a clear message.

But, after an initial, passionate kiss, he refused me, albeit, pressed to his body, I could feel the hardness of his arousal.

"No, not like this, not just because you think you owe me," he said. "I will wait."

He showed me the palace and the incredible works of art it contained, the books, modern and impossibly ancient, the musical instruments, the beautifully carved game boards, the precious card decks, all that could help the coven to pass the infinite time. There was even a cinema. He introduced me to other vampires, but I deeply disliked everyone, apart from him. The female who had lured me to Volterra was friendly, and congratulated me for not having been killed. She obviously did not think there was anything wrong with what she did and I could not relate to her.

I also detected jealousy from other females, and realized that Eleazar, unattached for centuries – unmated, where "mated" defined a steady relationship between vampires - had been sexually involved with many of them and now he was missed. I had no reason to be jealous as well but, surprisingly, I was.

He told me what it was that he did for the Volturi, and why that made him very dear to the coven's leader, Aro.

Some vampires are gifted. Not only are they strong, fast and indestructible, but a few of them can do almost magical things, both at the mental or at the physical level. One tiny, evil girl, Jane, can send waves of pain that would stop any assailant, elicit any confession. Another, Demetri, can track any person, wherever that person is hiding. And so on. Aro himself can see all your thoughts, past and present, just by touching your body. He had been collecting talented vampires from all over, seducing or blackmailing them into service, in order to strengthen the Volturi Guard.

Eleazar's peculiar talent was… to sense talents, even in people that were still human. He was, therefore, invaluable and enjoyed a lot of freedom.

This allowed for him to feed in a quite different way from the others, I discovered. At least it was his practice when I met him.

In Volterra the existence of vampires, albeit theoretically a secret, was known or suspected by many. People learned, however, that to simply hint that you were aware of the secret would cause you to disappear, so nobody spoke of it. Presently, the Volturi performed occasional services for the Fascist regime, after all they were expert killers, they just needed a name and the favor was done, in Italy or abroad. The different_ Podestà _were told by the Interior Ministers to let them well alone.

Now, Eleazar had became friendly with an insomniac doctor in the hospital, who often took the night shift, and they had concluded a silent agreement. Whenever there was a patient that was unlikely to survive, Eleazar was told and he took over. He quenched his thirst, the patient died quickly and painlessly and the doctor wrote a convenient death certificate. No questions asked, no autopsy performed. It was terrible, I reasoned, but at least Eleazar was not killing people with a future. The same doctor was the one who had given him the blood bottle.

To know that he tried to behave humanely, as far as that was possible, endeared him to me, so I opened up and finally told him my story. He did not say much when I sobbed but, the night after he left, telling me that he had a duty to perform for his masters.

It was not true.

I had not gone out of his rooms while he was absent. Really, I had nothing to say to the other vampires who resided here. I just waited for him to be back, hoping he would take me hunting, afterwards. I still was not supposed to go out alone.

When he was back he sat on the bed where I was laying and dangled a white gold chain in front of me, a chain I knew very well, due to the medal attached to it. A medal with an enamel engraving of the_ fascio_, a medal dedicated to Sandro Buti by his comrades in 1932, tenth anniversary of Mussolini's ascent to power.

"He is no more," Eleazar told me. "I ended him and buried his body in a forest. He will not be found."

In that moment I realized how much I had changed, becoming indeed a predator. A feral joy overcame me as I embraced him. Revenge was sweet, and now I wanted Eleazar, my beautiful, dark avenger with all of myself. The deep burgundy of his eyes, due to Sandro's blood in all probability, excited me to no end. He sensed my passion and my desire, and this time he allowed himself to reciprocate.

"Yes, Carmen," he said, "let me make love to you."

Oh, what a teacher he was! Through his hands and his mouth I discovered my body. Like a desert of stones and dust being suddenly drenched by rain, I was flowering. He was slow, languorous, until there was not a part of me that was not open to him, craving him, craving to be filled, craving what I never had before. He had undressed me gently as he started loving me, but now he was naked as well, his shaft proud and erect. I had thought that males' privates were gross, but what I was seeing was perfection, created for pleasure, created to be worshipped. When he entered me I was more than ready, when he started rocking his hips I thought I would pass out, if that was possible for a vampire. And then I felt it, the inverted tremor descending from my depths to where we were joined, my walls contracting around him, a woman, finally, despite Sandro, despite my change and all that had wounded me. Not through venom, but through his love, I was reborn.

…-…

War came to Italy, but in our small town, quite isolated and free from bombing until 1944, things did not change much. At the end of 1944 half of Italy was occupied by the Germans and half by the Anglo-American allies, while battles raged along the Gothic Line. There were refugees, deserters, people adrift, a very convenient hunting ground for the Volturi. Italians starved in the last years of the war, but the vampires in Volterra certainly didn't.

In the late winter of 1944 Eleazar had to leave me for about a week, a torturous separation. He was sent by our masters to assess the talent of a vampire residing in Ascoli, near the Adriatic Sea. He left on foot, accompanied by two warriors, but came back alone.

He told Aro and his 'brothers' that the vampire he had assessed was not particularly talented, no reason to recruit him, so the trip had been a waste of time. However, when they got to Tuscany again and were waiting for the sunset in order to resume their journey, they met a young man, not Italian probably, that he sensed was already a telepath. Eleazar left, but his two companions decided to stay behind and change the human. They never came back to Volterra.

His personal opinion, which he told only to me, was that one of the warriors, Damon, whom he considered unstable and unreliable, had drained the target, instead of changing him. This would have enraged the other vampire, they probably fought and one of them was destroyed, with his killer disappearing, too afraid to come back here. I know now that the human was Edward Masen, then an American paratrooper, and that things went more or less as Eleazar thought. Only, for some reason they fought **while** the human was changing, and Edward, now a furious newborn, escaped them, running away. What happened to the warriors afterwards remains a mystery, but probably the fight between the two vampires had ended as Eleazar thought originally.

…-…

More time passed and the war ended. I loved Eleazar and he loved me. In his arms I forgot everything for a while, but my displeasure with living in Volterra was showing, albeit I tried to keep it concealed from him. He took good care of me: as I was no longer a newborn and was feeding on animals, my irises would change, he explained, becoming amber colored. To avoid this, he procured from his friend at the hospital a blood bottle for me at regular intervals. Its unpleasant, altered taste made sure that I did not start suddenly craving human blood. So nobody suspected that I was keeping a different diet, and the fact that I did not take part in the banquets was not considered strange, as Eleazar also didn't.

I said that Eleazar loved me. The force of this love I had yet to discover fully. He was faithful to me, despite the fact that I had not made any demand in that sense, but that was not all.

He still accompanied me to hunt, and I was glad to have him with me. I had become good at it and I knew that to see me excited him, so that, when I had sated my thirst we often coupled, not gently, but going at each other like untamed, wild animals. This fierce Eleazar, different from the considerate lover he normally was, pleased me, even if we did not speak of it. It was our secret, making the hunt twice as wonderful.

I had just drained a fallow deer, one night, and was going to follow the rest of the terrified herd when he preceded me and, after he caught up with them, he jumped on another buck. I was following close and stood frozen. I had expected Eleazar to bring it to me, as he sometimes did, but no, he lowered his mouth to the animal's neck and drank from it.

He raised his head and smiled. Some blood was marring his mouth and fingers and he cleaned himself fastidiously before speaking:

"I have to learn, because when we depart from here, this is how I'll feed." he said.

"Can we?" I whispered, "Can you?"

"Yes, I know that you'll never be completely happy until I do both. To leave the Volturi is not going to be easy, I'll have to negotiate it prudently, but Aro does not consider me a slave. He knows I am mated now, and the fact that couples wish to have time alone is well known and accepted. I can't stop feeding traditionally, for the moment, though, but I will as soon as we leave.

Incredibly happy and full of hope I followed him and we went back to Volterra.

Chapter endnotes

Did you like this little deviation from the main plot? I could not resist it. With the next chapter we are back with Edward and Bella.

Today I have 73 reviews. They are not a lot. I am very grateful to everybody who sent one, but, please, send me more of them.

The use of citrate as a blood anticoagulant started in 1914. Coupled with refrigeration it eventually allowed for conserving blood up to 3 weeks. This led to the creation of blood banks. AVIS, the Italian one, was founded in 1929. Containers were not plastic blood bags (introduced in 1960), but made of glass or steel. This, at least, is the result of my research on this issue, to make credible what happens in this chapter.

A _**Podestà**_ was like a Mayor during Fascism. They were nominated by the central government, not elected democratically.

_**Fascio**_ (plural: _fasci_) is an Italian word of Latin origin literally meaning "fagot" (as in a bundle of sticks), and figuratively "league". It was used in the late 19th century to refer to political groups of many different (and sometimes opposing) orientations. A number of nationalist _fasci_ later evolved into the 20th century movement known as fascism. Here is what Sandro's medal could look like.

Obviously, if you have read The Parachutist, you know that the events related to Edward's change did not go as Carmen believes.


	15. Chapter 15  End of the road

**Parachutist 2 – Our New World**

Chapter15-Endoftheroad

A/N I was interviewed by Amber and Emerald Eyes (Just google it). The interview is under the Author's corner button.

For the geographical information in this chapter, I owe a lot to Serendipitous' husband, Jmolly and Sebastien Robichaud.

As usual the images can be found on the Twilighted Thread

http:/www(.)twilighted(.)net/forum/viewtopic(.)php?f=33&t=17854

**Edward**

When the long session with Eleazar and Carmen finally ends, I look for Bella.

"Come, let's take a stroll," I propose and she follows me into the woods surrounding the house.

"Eleazar is very much in love with his mate, and Carmen is the one who choose to become a vegetarian from the moment she was changed," I tell my wife. "She hated Volterra and the coven there, so eventually he decided to go away with her and to embrace her feeding choice. He is very happy about it, actually. Aro let them go, but Eleazar promised to make himself available, should his talent be needed for some important reason. He had to.

"I have told him of my experiences in Italy, barring the fact that I terminated his companions," I continue, "and I explained how we got together as humans and how we found ourselves again after I was turned. He understands and is not going to inform Aro of our situation and of the crime we are committing, according to the Volturi's law. However, if they meet again, as it will happen sooner or later, and Aro decides to read him, he will know… It is not going to happen anytime soon, however," I add quickly, "Eleazar knows well the trio of female vampires who reside in Alaska – I know that they are good friends of Carlisle's too. They, too, abstain from killing humans, for whom they have a better use: they often take living men as lovers… They are the original succubae, you know. Anyway, he has been in contact with Tanya, one of the sisters, and they will go to live with them for the time being... it is a very secluded place, so there is no urgency…"

I know that I am blabbering and sounding very upset by now. Bella has been silent but, when finally she opens her mouth everything comes crashing down.

"Edward, this is the end of the road. The time has come. You have to change me."

She is right, of course.

I gather her in my arms an inch away from crushing her. I can't speak, but I can kiss her, hungrily, desperately. When she resurfaces for breath I am still mute. Then, exactly like it has happened in other pivotal moments of our life together, she takes over.

"We'll tell the others so they can prepare for the move, and then we'll go away for a while. You and me, alone."

… °°° …

**Bella**

We are going to Alaska, alone. It has been a very long drive leading us to our eternal future. When we arrive we will have travelled for about a month. I am loving every single minute of it, discovering this beautiful country. We decided to travel mostly in the US, driving along its northernmost reaches, following the border with Canada until we reach Alberta, where we'll cross in and go from there to the Territory of Alaska. We choose this because we have been told that there are quite deserted stretches in the Canadian plains, and finding gas would be a real problem. So from Syracuse we headed West and day by day the names on the map became real landscapes. We went to Niagara Falls, which we had visited already when we were living in Michigan, though not the American side. I have not seen much of the world, but I am sure that the Falls are one of the most impressive sights to enjoy, anywhere.

In South Dakota we saw the Badlands Monument, a vast, windswept landscape of strange rock formations, grimly beautiful. Here Indians fought against the overtaking of their lands, seeking strength and inspiration by performing ghost dances on the sacred peaks, rituals that were meant to chase the pale faces away. The upraising ended tragically at Wounded Knee, Edward tells me. He is musing about it afterwards, but he does not add anything more. Being part of a minority that has been harassed for over two thousand years, I have a lot of sympathy for the redskins.

From Sheridan in Wyoming we went to see the Presidents on Mount Rushmore. I was impressed by the sight, but did not completely like the idea, because in Italy they have cut a forest in the shape of Mussolini's face and had even thought of defiling Mount Soratte, sung by Latin poets, to achieve the same effect in stone, since its profile already recalled our dictator's. Well, that project aborted, thank God. The American Presidents, of course, had been great men, democratically elected, but still…

I loved Yellowstone, where we spent two nights. The Gran Paradiso National Park in the Aosta Valley is garden sized in comparison. Edward needed to hunt and came back from his night out very smug and quite replete, his eyes a light butterscotch: he had taken down a grizzly and could not wait to tell Emmett.

We coped with sunny days as well as we could. The car radio was constantly tuned to weather stations and, if the forecasts said sunny when we wanted to see some sights - most of them were new for Edward too - we left our hotel rooms at night so that we could be on location at dawn, and leave before people showed up.

In Alberta, after we had crossed into Canada and were headed to Banff, we had an adventure. On a deserted stretch a moose was standing in the middle of the road and refused to back up. The animal looked aggressive and moved every time Edward swerved right or left trying to bypass it. Clearly pissed off, he parked on the side and said:

"Ok, lunch is served." And he literally took the moose by the antlers and carried it into the thick forest.

He came back half an hour later, with an air of nonchalance, but I knew that after the kill he had taken time for his wilder instincts to recede, before coming back to me. It was the first time that I had seen Edward "almost" hunting and, while I understood the reason for not allowing me to watch, I found it extremely thrilling, particularly because very shortly I would be going with him… Then I had another thought, dangerous and dark, something that had came to my mind more than once, but one I had never had the courage to act on. I decided that before we got to Alaska I would try… before it was too late.

The Fairmont Hotel, a castle of sorts overlooking Banff in a breathtaking alpine landscape, was a sight and reminded me of a certain Swiss Belle Époque hotel I have been staying with my parents in Pontresina, before the war. But Edward asked me to be patient, we were not going to take a room there.

He looked for the train station, parked and went inside, seeking the information office. He did not want me to go with him and I respected his wish. When Edward was back he looked triumphant and all was made clear later on. We drove for some 50 miles more toward Jasper and finally found what he was looking for: "Mountain View" a small resort offering private bathing facilities to people who have been ill and don't want communal bathing.

We got a room - simple, spacious and nice - and here we have been staying since last night.

From the room balcony a few canvas screened steps lead to one of the lesser hot water pools below. A removable canvas fence surrounds it on three sides, leaving the space for a couple of cushioned benches. Due to the elevated position of the resort, the fourth side is not fenced, allowing for a view of the beautiful mountains outside. There are no roads or easy paths over there, so nobody is likely to see the hotel guests bathing. The sun is shining today and the only noise is from the birds perched on the nearby trees.

"Shall we?" Edward asks, taking my hand and descending with me. Once down he sheds the hotel's bathrobe and for a moment he is gloriously naked and shimmering. Yes, definitely, the most beautiful man who ever existed. He jumps in and opens his arms. My bathrobe follows his on the bench and I go to him. We play in the water uninhibitedly - nobody can see us - we splash each other, he disappears from the surface for quite a long time, freaky non-breathing vampire, then surges out of the water like a dolphin and chases me. I am easy to catch.

The pool is deep in the center but shoulder-high on the sides, well, more Edward's shoulders than mine, I can barely touch the pool's bottom with the tips of my feet, so I simply hang onto him, encircling his hips with my legs. He teases me for a while, his hard manhood tantalizingly brushing my folds, and then with a soft growl he enters me …

Water play happily ended, we leave the pool. Edward pulls the two benches together, covering them with a soft towel. We stretch side by side, just letting the sun dry us. After a while I open my eyes. He is watching me, prone, chin on his forearm, perfect ass sparkling. I reach to him, take his hand and pepper it with kisses.

"Thank you, thank you, I so wanted this to be possible, to lie with you under the sun…"

He smiles.

"Love, will you not sunburn?"

"Oh, right. I have bought this lotion."

"Want help?"

"Can you do my back?"

"Sure," but he is grinning like a devil.

"Just that, please… I would like to get a little tan."

He pouts but complies.

"I wonder," I say, when I lie back again, "if the tanning will help me to be not so white when I am changed. It'll be good if I am not too noticeable. After all Carmen and Eleazar have an olive complexion, they are pale but not that white. And Negroes … how is their skin if they become vampires?

"Never seen one yet," Edward muses, "interesting…"

Some time passes, while we bask in the sun.

He is now lying on his side, face leaning on his hand, and looking at me intently. I feel that the conversation about how the change would affect skin has disturbed him, reminding him that there is almost no time left. But he has to accept the situation, so I go on pushing.

I point a finger at my crotch.

"Alice says that I should have it shaved, at least partially. In the next decades swimming suits will become skimpier and skimpier and if I don't take care of it now it would be difficult, later …"

Oh yes, I pushed him, but in another direction. His eyes are getting black. His hand, warm now, covers my dark curls possessively.

"Mine," he growls.

"Well, maybe, but just a little," he then relents, "and I think you have sunbathed enough."

He is very aroused and I am getting wet, so yes, the sun tanning session ends here. His mouth moves where his hand was … the lips are warm, now, but not the tongue, which did not have the benefit of sun and hot water and the contrast is delicious …

The resorts offers limited but adequate room service, and that is how I get my meals.

When the sun is gone we go for a stroll and when we get back in the room he tells me to wait while he takes another dip. I am almost sleeping, wonderfully tired, when he comes back, warm again, and spoons me, humming my song. I fall asleep… I dream, and in the dream I finally do what I want to do …

I am suddenly awake and sharply aware. He enveloped me in a blanket as he cooled, always considerate. Now I have to find the courage for it, for what I want to give him. I turn towards his smile, his golden eyes. Not so golden for a while, if I have my way.

"Not sleepy anymore?" He asks.

"No" and I kiss him. He reciprocates, and his tongue seeks an entrance, immediately granted. After a while, his mouth leaves mine and wanders, covering each inch of my skin with tickling delights.

**Edward**

Sitting with her in my lap I wonder if I should give myself, or, frankly, her human body a pause… no way… her hands, caressing me, pinching my nipples, going past my navel, tell me that she is very, very much in the mood and who am I to say no? I explore her soon to be curbed curls, so soft and so wet for me, and I think I cannot wait another moment when she does something unexpected, her hand darting under the cushion, coming out fisted over something I can't see.

"Edward, I… I…" she says, and it is clear that she is nervous, her breath catching, but she continues, still clutching the mysterious object.

"In Rome, I challenged you… you were terrified… you just cleaned me up… and when you will change me you'll be terrified again, and there will be Carlisle and Jasper nearby… but, … as long as it is still possible… I want you to have it… please, Edward, don't refuse me…"

I am looking at her, very confused, when she opens her hand and shows me: a small penknife. Stunned, I finally understand, even if I almost can't believe what she is asking me to do, what she is offering.

"See… no teeth will be involved… safe… no venom injected…"

Oh God, I should be horrified, I should talk her out of it… Indeed I am horrified, but also getting impossibly hard, my throat is burning, venom is pooling in my mouth and this is becoming like a nightmare, but one I don't want to wake up from.

"Bella, no, don't ask this, don't offer… It's wrong…"

I try to be stern and yet I feel that to refuse this ultimate gift she is offering me, testifying how recklessly she loves me, is also wrong.

"Edward, make love to me, drink me…"

Monster and lover, she wants us both and I am powerless to deny her. I will be what she wants me to be. I am hers.

With a graceful movement she raises her hips and impales herself on me. We both moan and now I am really losing it, engulfed in her warmth.

_I__must__stop__her,__I__must__stop__her__…_ But I don't stop her; the serpent that damned Eve had nothing on her. Mesmerized, unmoving, I just watch while she cuts her upper arm. Christ, her scent, her pulse, her blood…The only thing I am capable of doing is to gulp back the scorching venom in my mouth, before pressing my lips to her skin. The first mouthful goes down like liquid velvet, my throat is soothed, and there are no words to say how good it is. She is feeding me, nurturing me … I am beyond shame, enveloped in bliss. And yet it is not bloodlust that I feel, it is passion, carnal and overwhelming, and my pelvis starts moving…

**Bella**

The sting of the penknife's cut stops the moment Edward applies his cold lips to the wound. He is drinking now, slow, spaced gulps that tell me he is in control. Ecstasy. Nobody told me, I could not have imagined it, but feeding him is incredibly erotic and enhances the pleasure I feel from his lovemaking. One sensation magnifies the other, I am melting on his mouth, I am melting on him. His sensuous thrusts are quickly sending me over the edge… I orgasm once, then twice, then more. So this is vampire love… to a human, this is the incubus experience….

I am losing myself, there is nothing more powerful than this. I could die now and not regret it. Time passes unheeded while I climb from rapture to rapture, the slow rhythm of his lips pulling from my arm, the increasingly frenzied rhythm of his shaft inside me, a taste of eternity… until I feel his body go rigid. He has stopped drinking, I realize, coming out from the haze. The blood flow must have stopped, the cut was not that deep after all... I open my eyes and even in the dim light I can see that his irises are now very black – did I make a mistake? Will he bite me, change me or… kill me? Due maybe to the loss of blood I am too dazed to move, to react in any way… Edward snarls, uncovers his white deadly teeth… and sinks them in his forearm, then, groaning and shuddering, he finds his release. Oh my love…

Chapter endnotes

Blood play was a challenge to write. But I believe that Bella loves him so completely that she would attempt it, because she could. What do you think? I think he would be tempted to bite her, but would not do it.

With the next chapter I'll introduce a new character, and pave the way for new, unexpected and scary developments.

In 1947 Alaska was still a Territory, not a State, of course.

Wounded Knee. Would a white American of that time give more than a passing thought to the plight of Native Americans and the many injustices done to them? The real awareness, I think, came later, and there were a lot of good films from the mid '60s onward that testify the shift in popular attitude. On the contrary, Stagecoach, with John Wayne, is a good example of the earlier cultural approach. However, I like to think that Edward had enough depth to refuse that approach. Finally, please don't be offended by the word "redskin"… this was the common definition in Italy: _Pellerossa._

Where the heck did Bella ever see a dolphin, to be able to make the comparison? There were no aquariums in Italy before WWII, nor TV nature programs. Easy: when on vacation with her parents on the Adriatic seaside before the war, she had the good fortune to see them playing and jumping during a short cruise

The Swiss hotel I have in mind is still standing, in beautiful Engadin. Fully restored and divided in apartments, it is now a condominium, alas. The small resort welcoming Edward and Bella is imaginary, however. I researched a lot about the origin of thermal therapies in Banff and Jasper, without finding a definite place, but I needed one, so I created it. Hot springs were considered a cure, primarily, and to request and be offered private bathing facilities was not unheard of, in a period were people, particularly if recovering from an illness, were still quite shy of their bodies. My Canadian mentors told me to go ahead.

The sun lotion would probably have been Coppertone, developed during the war years to protect soldiers' skin in the tropics and in Africa and launched commercially in 1944.

As current scientific opinion has it, a tanned skin is to be considered a medical condition, therefore I doubt that a tan would survive the venom's effect.

Negroes: I hope that this word also does not offend. Bella would never think of saying Black or African American, politically correct words that came into use years later in the US and later still in Italy. In Italian, by the way,_Negro_ has not a particularly negative connotation, it is factual. (After the Romans we have not had black – or white - slaves here, just invaders, visitors and now immigrants).


	16. Chapter 16 Yves

**Parachutist 2 – Our New World**

Chapter 16 - Yves

A/N This is going to be quite a short chapter, even for my standards. I am very sorry, but it has to be so. Here I introduce a new character, while the other twos you will surely recognize.

As usual, the images for this chapter are on the Twlighted thread

http:/www(.)twilighted(.)net/forum/viewtopic(.)php?f=33&t=17854

_Meanwhile in Alaska…._

**No POV**

So beautiful, hair like a cascade of liquid gold, pale gold on her paler skin. Exquisite. And his. She'll do anything for him. The power he has over her is exciting, arouses him more than her body. He wonders what else he could make her do. Would she change her diet for him? Would she behave as her nature wants her to behave?

He will bring her there. It will be his masterpiece. But there are other steps before she is completely broken to his will.

So, what next? Would she share him with her sister, the strawberry blonde? They have done it, sometimes, he knows. Together they brought some pitiful human to heaven, but that was just for play, a game, nothing serious. He knows she does not want to share the immortal she is in love with. Oh but she will, she will.

His talent is seduction and he spent time in Italy decades ago exerting it on behalf of the Volturi. Beautiful women, virtuous women, virgins, whores, peasants and countesses alike followed him blindly to Volterra. Lower minions remained behind to create the accidents that justified the women's vanishing. A few of them became immortals, the rest were for shared enjoyment, first their bodies, then their blood, sating both the lust and thirst of the Volturi elite until they were no more.

He fell afoul of Caius, however, and would have probably faced destruction, were it not for a mind trick he learned while travelling in the Balkans and meeting an ancient vampire there. Under his tutoring he discovered how to make some areas of his memories and thoughts blank – not all of them of course – and, when the trouble came, he managed to fool Aro. Caius suspected but had no proof, so he was able to leave Italy unscathed. He thinks that the old immortal shared the secret with him not for sympathy, but in the hopes that it would make mischief in Aro's coven, eventually. In any case, it saved his ass.

His campaign to get her sister to join them in bed bore fruit. The third sister, the one with flaxen hair, does not interest him. Albeit beautiful too, she is a little too dangerous, he thinks, shuddering at the thought of her stunning power.

Irina had to lie, she had to tell Tanya that Yves was only a passing distraction, not that she was passionately in love with him and was doing this only to please him, so that he would stay with her.

But now that things are rolling, his pleasure is incredible, even vampire stamina is almost not up to the task, he is intoxicated by the things they make him do and do to him. Succubae they are, his counterparts, as he is an incubus, and they are well matched.

At a certain point he is so excited that he loses it a little, and starts speaking out of sorts, telling them of his past, of his achievements, of his experiences. And of the mind trick that helped him to conceal one, just one, essential piece of information from Aro. He explains how he did it. They dislike Aro, are amused and would like to experiment, at least visualize in their own minds the little whirlpool that will cover a memory, a thought. Well, after all, why not, if the girls someday need it… and it is of no consequence to him, he is not a mind reader.

However, time passes, and his other goal is not in sight. Irina will not change her feeding habits for him and he is pissed off. So he decides he has to exert more pressure, has to leave her, or at least to make her believe that he is getting bored, and will go back to Quebec City. It is a good time to do it, because they are expecting visitors and good manners dictate that the sisters spend time with them. A couple is arriving.

He knows the male, Eleazar and, while he does not particularly want to renew the acquaintance, he will have to suffer it. Apparently he is mated now, how boring. When they were staying in Volterra that vampire was quite the ladies' man, he remembers, changing bed partners as he shed his shirts. Yves' mind lingers on certain nights when, together, they enjoyed foursomes… Unfortunately, Eleazar never acquiesced to the idea of including human women in their games, more is the pity. To seduce a living woman and drain her during her orgasm is an experience that never pales, he thinks. And, if the woman was his singer, his _chanteuse_, surely the pleasure would be unparalleled. But Ives never had the good fortune to find his one… well, eternity is quite a long time and, sooner or later, he'll find her.

By the way, he learned that another coven is also arriving, from the East Coast. All of them animal drinkers too. He will have to raise his pressure on Irina, lest the bad example encourages her stubbornness. So he will just meet the new arrivals and then make himself scarce for a while, making her stew…

Chapter endnotes

I detest Yves and you will as well, very soon. What will he do? Tell me what you think or leave me a review anyway.

I am hinting that a lot of improper things, apart from murders, go on in the Volturi's palace. And why not? A bunch of greedy and unrepentant killers all chastely married and faithful to their mates? Unlikely. Canon or not, I still am not convinced that the mating bond experienced by traditionally feeding vampires has the same strength of that of vegetarian vamps. Trads are selfish, they exist to give in to their instincts, with no qualms, so the bond is attenuated, not an absolute tie. Where there are no ethics there is no true love. Yes, Marcus was devastated by the death of his wife, but he was also changing, he wanted to leave the coven, probably sickened by the power games played in Volterra. Anyway, this is what I think.

No, I don't know what Yves did to enrage Caius. It is not important, and enraging him is so easy…anything will do.


	17. Chapter 17  Alaska

Parachutist 3 – Our New World

Chapter 17 Alaska 

A/N Thanks again to Serendipitous-Meilleur Cafè' s husband: without him to figure out Edward and Bella's route would have been extremely difficult for me, stuck in Italy and not knowing Alaska at all. So, forgive me if I am not big on descriptions.

Don't miss the inspiring images I choose for the chapter! Go to the thread.

http:/www(.)twilighted(.)net/forum/viewtopic(.)php?f=33&t=17854

_From Chapter 15 –Bella's PoV: _

_I__open__my__eyes__and__even__in__the__dim__light__I__can__see__that__his__irises__are__now__very__black__ – __did__I__make__a__mistake?__Will__he__bite__me,__change__me__or__… __kill__me?__Due__maybe__to__the__loss__of__blood__I__am__too__dazed__to__move,__to__react__in__any__way__… __Edward__snarls,__uncovers__his__white__strong__teeth__… __and__sinks__them__in__his__forearm,__then,__groaning__and__shuddering,__he__finds__his__release.__Oh__my__love_…

**Bella**

"Amore?"

"Yes?"

He is still laying on the bed where he has collapsed, unmoving and too handsome for words. The rosy glow from the lamp, or maybe the… drink he had, make his pale skin look flushed, almost. I am standing and trying to find the words I need.

"What was it, was it thirst?" I ask.

"No, it was… OK, vampires sometimes bite each other, when they are making love. At least it's what I gathered from our siblings' minds. I try not to listen, but I cannot always avoid it."

"Did it happen to you before… this desire to bite?"

"Why, yes, sometimes, after all I am a vampire, too. But I could control it, subdue it, forget about it, eventually. This, among other things, is what restraint is about. Almost from the very beginning my thirst was under control and even the… desire to use my teeth was not a big problem. I never could explain it, but it is like your body is controlling mine, telling it what I can do and what I can't. It always happens, when I am with you. However… blood… and sex…it was too much, evidently. I am so very sorry."

"Don' t be. You did not bite me after all. It was exciting, in its own way. Did it sting?"

"Hell, yes, but… but… I found pleasure even in that… masochist, much?"

I laugh a little at that, amazed at the level of confidence and frankness we have achieved. Shame seems no longer to be a part of how he sees himself. I lie with him again, snuggling close. Edward must be content, after all, because he starts purring softly, lulling me to sleep. Before I go under I tell myself that this experience was of the once in a lifetime kind. I am happy we did what we did, but I'll not tempt him anymore. And soon I'll have nothing to tempt him with, hopefully.

I sleep late and when I awaken I can see thatEdward's irises are orange colored, with red around the rims, so he decides to find himself some animal before we leave. In a blur he jumps from the pool area, leaping into the forest in front of us. Practically invisible, despite the sunny day. I pass the time working on my suntan. Two hours later he is back, appearing suddenly in front of me with a big smile on his face. The red rims are fading and his alabaster skin has a warmer hue, due to the hunt. I rush into his arms. Some clouds have made an appearance and it is clear that later in the day the weather will change.

"Time to resume our journey," he murmurs on my hair.

We say goodbye to the Canadian Rockies, admiring from Yellowhead Pass and descend on Prince George, continuing North until we get to Fort Nelson. A long stretch of road of about a thousand miles. Edward drives on while I nap in the back seat. He stops only for fuel and food for me, heading toward the Yukon border. It is a very remote territory with no services for more than one hundred miles between a very small town and another.

Once we have crossed into the US again at Dawson Range, we drive over the deserted Alaskan highway. In theory we should not be able to use it. Built in 1942, it is still reserved for the military, as the conditions aren't deemed appropriate for regular travel. However, civilians are allowed to use the highway if they can prove they have legitimate business in Alaska. Well, having a house in Mt McKinley Park, very difficult to reach otherwise, is legitimate business, and Carlisle once again made use of his good connections in the Army to secure a transit permit for us. The rest of the family, plus Eleazar and Carmen, just flew to Anchorage. They intended to buy Jeeps from Army surplus, apparently there are many on sale and they should be much better for unpaved roads, as most of them are, in Alaska. I don't know how Edward's car will fare, but we can only wait and see.

The last stop of our trip before our destination is Fairbanks, where we take a room in the Palace Hotel, which, in raunchier times during the first part of the Gold Rush, stood very close to the Red Lights district. Nowadays gold mining, already managed by companies, has been dwindling and most miners' settlements have been abandoned.

The hotel has telephone booths.

"I am going to call the family, tell them where we are," Edward says, "Since they flew, they must have arrived already, bought the Jeeps, driven to the Park and gotten settled."

"Do we have a telephone connection there?" I ask, because I thought that there were no phones anywhere in Alaska, barring the main towns.

"Radio telephones," Edward explains, "it seems we are connected through ACS, the Alaska Communication System. It is a facility set up by the military, directing incoming telephone calls to radio stations. Our place and that of the three sisters are linked to the system. Trust Carlisle to have the necessary pulls, as a former military doctor. Our vegetarian "cousins" have radio telephones too," he adds, "thus Eleazar was able to speak with them when he landed in New York, and now we have warned them of our arrival."

We have arrived and I am quite overwhelmed by everything. So many people, all of them vampires. The Cullens' residence here is what they call a lodge, but in reality it is a sort of compound, a tall wooden pavilion surrounded by lesser buildings, the kind of two stories rustic cottages, that in Italy, in the Alps, would be called _baite_. Edward and I will stay in the main place, where also Esme and Carlisle have their rooms, while the other two couples will be in the outside buildings. The house has central heating, powered by an oil-burning generator which provides electricity too, but the huts only have iron stoves. Well, with fire being dangerous to vampires, it makes sense. Stoves are safer than fireplaces – and warmer too. Strictly speaking, they are not necessary, but vampires like warmth.

I do not have time to figure out everything, because of the residents who have come to welcome us. Of the trio of sisters who live in Alaska, their house a few miles for here – no distance for a vampire - only two are present, the third, called Irina, is missing. She and her Canadian (lover, beau, no one has used the word mate) will come later, they have sent excuses through Tanya. That vampire is called Yves and I see something flicker on Eleazar's handsome face, when he is named, so quick that I am not even sure I saw it. Since he and Carmen arrived, they have gone to live with the sisters, so he must have met him already.

Esme says that she wants to have a look at her future greenhouse and we step outside to see where it will be. It is meant to host flowers only, now, since I will not need fresh vegetables anymore…

While we are walking, I realize that Edward is not with us, nor is one of the sisters, Tanya, a strawberry blonde who is too beautiful for comfort. I try instinctively to get back and discover what delayed them, when a tiny iron manacle encircles my wrist.

"Let it be, Bella," Alice says, "better now than later. Oh, but Tanya is a hussy."

Well, this does nothing for my peace of mind, but I can't move.

"Your instincts are all right," she adds, "she found a pretext to delay Edward and will be making a pass at him in a few seconds… and he…"

"Hell, Alice, he what?"

Jasper is near us, now, and the calming wave I am getting is surely from him.

"And he will give her a piece of his mind, don't doubt it… oh, he will… so good to See it. It is not the first time she tries something with the Cullen men…unsuccessfully."

"Yes," Jasper interjects, "it is usually just a game for her, she is a succubus, after all. However, this time, I don't know, I felt not only lust but… passion."

Oh, fantastic, just what I needed. And, according to Carlisle, she is almost family to the Cullens.

"I don't think you should worry, Bella," Alice says, "for the moment I don't See anything bad happening. I believe you should not give any indication that you know what happened. To Tanya, I mean. It is better to leave her dignity intact. I know that Carlisle values the relationship with the sisters. Vegetarian vampires are so rare… Of course, secrecy doesn't apply to Edward when you two are alone. Mm, fun."

Evil Pixie, what has she Seen?

Eventually, to my great relief, everybody but the Cullens depart. It has been decided that we would visit our 'cousins' in the next days. Esme gets busy in the kitchen, uniquely for my benefit, and comes out with a delicious soup and two sandwiches, promising something more elaborate tomorrow. I feel that, with her nurturing personality, she is unhappy that soon there would be no need to provide for me.

After eating, I am dead on my feet and Edward takes me to our room. It is wonderful: it has an alcove bed, one that has even a sliding door that can be closed. Well, no need for it in summer, albeit the night is quite cool. We unpack our trusted electric blanket, plug it in and I slip under a heavenly feather comforter with my husband's arms around me. I wanted to speak with Edward of what had happened with Tanya, but I am really too tired. Well…it can keep a few hours.

When I wake up it is early morning and Edward is looking at me.

"Morning, love." He smiles.

**Edward**

Bella escapes my embrace to have her human moments and when she comes back to me her jutting chin expresses her determination. She is beyond adorable.

"Edward, I want to know what happened yesterday between you and that… that Tanya."

Now, what do I tell her? I try to circle around the issue:

"Bella, it is not the first time somebody has looked at me with lust, nor at you, if truth has to be told…."

She knows it, but it is good to remind her. I can read minds, we are both pleasant to look at, so we have to live with it. Before I found Bella again, in Italy during the war, it was distasteful to me when it happened, for instance in the night clubs I went to gather information for the Resistance. I was a monster, I did not desire intimate relations with women - apart from my lack of interest, I was sure I would kill them if I tried - so I closed my inner ears as far as I could. When we were together again, and I was again in possession of my sexuality, it was different. However, the cases when we were in public together were not frequent and I tried to ignore those thoughts. Obviously, if they centered on Bella, I was very jealous and I saw myself doing damage to the men who dared to think of her in that way, but I managed to remain in control.

Later, in America, it has been worse, women are bolder here, surprising and embarrassing me, and men… are like men everywhere. As Bella is extremely perceptive, we eventually spoke of it openly. We agreed that people are not really responsible of what filth comes into their minds. Eventually I told her some of those fantasies, and it became a naughty game for us, fuelling our own fantasies… a very good way to manage my anger and make something better with it.

But Bella is not appeased:

"She had **only** thoughts about you?" she asks, and of course she is right.

"No, not only thoughts," I have to admit, angry that I was so stupidly well-mannered as to remain alone with Tanya, when she asked. Her mind had given me early warning, but I could not believe that she would be so wanton… It was really disconcerting.

"She spoke all right," I continue," but I told her in no uncertain terms I was not interested." Well, I might have been more forceful than this, but that's the gist of it.

My wife spares me the request of details, but she is furious.

"When I am a vampire," she declares, "if she continues pestering you I'll… I'll make off with her head."

Oh my little Red Queen! The quote, voluntary or not, sets us laughing. And, once we subside, I feel suddenly very horny. Angry Bella is delicious, angry vampire Bella will be amazing. I kiss her passionately, and she does not fight me, quite the contrary, so we proceed to inaugurate the alcove bed, all concerns about Tanya blissfully erased for the time being.

"_Accidenti_," Bella suddenly says, "Alice Saw this…"

Chapter endnotes

Yeah, Canon or AU, Tania is a bitch. And she is not done, yet. Reviews?

I needed the Cullens and Tanya's family to be connected by phone, so I studied early communications in Alaska and found the interesting memories of one B. McCalley, a technician at the Campbell Point receiver station in Anchorage. He tells us: _ACS__(Alaskan__Communication__Service)__handled__the__radio__teletype,__radio__telephone,__and__other__services__for____the____public__as__well__as__for__the__military__at__the__time__I__was__there__(1947).__Headquartered__in__Seattle,__Washington,__the__main__Alaskan__office__was__located__in__downtown__Anchorage.__Calls__received__at__Campbell__Point__were__connected__via__phone__lines__to__Anchorage__where__the__they__were__handled__and__forwarded__to__their__destination__either__via__the__phone__lines__or__the__ACS__transmitters__located__elsewhere__…__._

As you have seen, in this chapter I address an issue I didn't touch on previously, and I practically dismiss it, namely sexual thoughts about Bella and himself that Edward can read in humans' minds. It is not very interesting to me, and this Edward, not a virgin, not a prude and quite sure of his sexuality and of his relationship with his mate, has much less trouble with it than Canon Edward.

_Accidenti_can be translated with "crap".


	18. Chapter 18 Tea for one

**Parachutist 2 – Our New World**

Chapter 18 – Tea for one

A/N

Many, many thanks to Serendipitous, her husband, Raum and Maniac Motherland who helped me to figure out the final chapters of this story. There are a few more to go. Fasten your seat belts.

As usual, the images for the story are on the Twilghted net forums

http:/www(.)twilighted(.)net/forum/viewtopic(.)php?f=33&t=17854

_Previously_

"_When I am a vampire," she declares, "if she continues pestering you I'll… I'll make off with her head."_

**Bella**

With me piggy-backing on Emmett, we are going to visit the Alaskan vampires today. I am wearing trousers. Here women wear them much more than in Italy, and they are certainly more appropriate, both for my present position and for this climate, which is cool even in summer.

No car, because by road it is a long detour, while when running straight in the wilderness it takes no time at all – for vampires, that is. Next time I visit maybe I'll be running too. I try to look forward to pleasant things and to avoid thinking of the painful three days that are coming my way. Of course I am scared, but I don't want Edward to know that…

Not all of us are going today, though. Two days ago Edward went to Anchorage with Rosalie. They should be back later today, hopefully, since they don't need to stop or sleep. Rose declared his Ford no longer safe after our long trip and, while they were discussing it, Alice told us that she Saw a very good Jeep coming up for sale in the dealership that manages Army surplus items - the place where they bought their own vehicles on arrival. But it was necessary to claim it immediately, or it would be gone. So eventually he and my sister left together, as nobody in the family buys anything on wheels without her assessment and approval. I didn't go with them, much as I would have liked it. I am a little worn out by our long trip from New York, and Alice Saw me coming down with a cold, if I didn't take care of myself. Well, becoming a vampire would cure any cold, but I don't want to be sick during my last days as a human.

They have taken Edward's car for its last journey – it will make it, but just barely, Alice says, then it will have to be scrapped. He is sad to let it go, one more thing of his former life he has to leave behind. It is just an object, but it is also a memento of his human father.

By going to Anchorage, however, he was excused from the visit, and glad of it. He does not relish seeing Tanya again anytime soon. Alice and Jasper are also avoiding the occasion. It seems that the pixie Saw Jasper having strong emotional issues in the coming days. Plus, he needs to recover from a plane journey that was very trying, with two spoiled brats jumping up and down the aisle and sometimes falling on him, until one of them managed to scrape his knee… Carlisle took over then, they told us, and exchanged seats with his son, thus avoiding a possible tragedy. Alice didn't See the episode, because the kids' family bought the tickets at the last moment. In any case, Jasper's talent and expertise will be essential during and immediately after my change, and much will be demanded of him, so he and Alice took off hunting for a few days, blessedly alone. Well, good for them.

So it is me, Emmett, Carlisle and Esme who are visiting. I have never seen the Denalis' house and it would look strange if I didn't go with them. I don't mind seeing Tanya again, and I am ready to give her a piece of my mind, if the opportunity arises.

The house is built like a Russian_isba_, entirely with wood, Esme explains to me. It is very pretty, painted a light blue. The Denali sisters are Russians and this has been their home well before Alaska was purchased by the US Government, less than a century ago. They have travelled everywhere during their long existence, but here is where their unbeating hearts lie.

We are treated to a grand tour by Kate and Carmen. The third sister apparently is not here and Tanya just said hello, excused herself and retreated to her room. I suppose she is pissed off that Edward is not with us, she looked eager enough when she opened the door. Secretly, I gloat.

The interior of the house is also very nice, exotic and full of Russian objects, precious lacquered boxes and even icons. The sisters have their rooms in the ground floor, while Carmen and Eleazar reside in the attic. On the backyard there is another smaller building, also painted blue, for guests I am told. The Cullens have stayed here, before they built their own property.

Back in the living room Kate proposes to make tea for me in the Russian style. I am surprised, but then I remember that they have relations with human men, so it must be possible to prepare foods and drinks here. An ancient but sparkling copper samovar is lighted and tea prepared. It is very different from the way I normally take it: first a concentrated brew is made and then mixed with hot water from the samovar. It is good.

I end up chatting with Carmen. She speaks good Italian, and I was missing it, as I only speak English with Edward and the family now. At first we are treading carefully, keeping the conversation general: how is Bologna and how is Barcelona, where she was a frequent visitor, while living in a nearby village. She shows me a book she has, which illustrates the work of a Spanish architect active in Cataluña, Antoni Gaudí and, very interested, Esme joins us. I am enthralled by the photos, showing the highly original design of the buildings and the surprising decorations – irregular and fantastically intricate, with an almost hallucinatory power. I am reminded of Mercer; like him, Gaudí was misunderstood by his peers, until he found a patron that made it possible for him to give substance to his dreams. I do admire people like that …

From architecture we move to European politics and Esme joins Emmett, Kate and Carlisle, who is deep in conversation with Eleazar. Alone, Carmen and I deal with human affairs at first, as both Carmen and I hate Fascism and have personal reasons for it. I don't know what happened to her exactly, but it is clear she has suffered. Plus, her country is still under a dictatorship. Almost painlessly we get to vampire politics; the Volturi, that is.

"Eleazar thinks," she says, "that without them things would be even worse than they are now. The enforcement of the secret-keeping prohibits nomads from going on killing sprees, and they **did** put a stop to the Southern wars. I don't know, my mate might be right, but I hated Volterra and its immortal dwellers when I was living there."

I have a question burning my lips, and I decide to ask it. I know she and Eleazar are vegetarians now, but how were things before?

"Did you ever, ever …" I have a difficulty uttering the words, but she understands me.

"Did I ever taste human blood, you mean?" I nod.

"Unfortunately, I did. Only once, the very day I awakened from my transition. Well, not exactly, because I have also drank donated blood, but it tastes awful, too many preservatives in it."

I look at her, shocked by what she is implying, but she continues:

"I didn't know better and even Eleazar didn't, when he brought me my first and only human victim. Instinct drove me. But, when the frenzy abated, I decided I was not going to repeat the murderous act, and he helped me to abstain. And now he, too, has changed. I'll never look at humans like they are food, whatever the temptation…"

How strong this woman is! I like her enormously and more so when she adds:

"You are going to be changed while living with a loving family who has foresworn human blood. They all will support you, your handsome husband first among them. Fear not, you will never slip, I am sure of it."

The living room door opens abruptly and two new vampires come in. The female has ash blond hair and is lovely. Well, of course. The male is quite handsome too, tall and slender, with thick chestnut-colored hair. Only, his eyes are red…

Kate rises up.

"Bella, allow me to introduce my sister Irina and her friend Yves. Yves, are you really leaving us? Going back to Quebec City?"

The vampire does not answer her. He is looking at me, with a sort of grimace on his otherwise perfect face. Strange, he is not breathing… Abruptly he turns around and leaves the room. We hear the outside door opening and closing. How rude.

Irina is frozen on the spot until, with a half strangled cry, she runs after him. We hear her calling his name.

"I am very sorry," Kate murmurs, "Irina is devastated by his leaving; she thinks he is her mate. I doubt it, otherwise he would not be going back to Canada…

Well, this is beyond embarrassing. Maybe for this reason the visit is cut short after that. Better to leave the Denalis to their family problems. Tanya shows herself again and she has a quick conversation with her sister at vampire speed … very frustrating. We all say goodbye with promises to meet again soon, _Sure,__when__I__will__be__able__to__rip__Tanya__'__s__head__off,__in__case,_I think_._We leave.

Back at home I feel that everybody is fidgeting; the visit's outcome was not very relaxing, so I propose the common vampire remedy for nerves, lacking Jaspers' help.

"Why don't you go out for a snack? I'll be perfectly safe and Rose and Edward should be back any moment now."

Blackened eyes cannot lie, so my proposal is accepted with little protests and many assurances that they will return very soon.

A moment of alone time is good for my nerves too. I place a pile of records on the gramophone. Strauss' waltzes, how lovely – I really can't wait until the Long Playing microgroove records are on the market. After making myself a roast beef sandwich and pouring a glass of milk (very un-kosher, but what the hell, very soon I'll drink only animal blood, very un-kosher too), I look for some reading. Yes, here it is. A mammoth of a book that Jasper lent me and I brought with me while travelling. However, I did not make much progress, having better things to do. My brother thought I would like the story, as it presents the American Civil War from a Southern perspective and the historical details are accurate.

"The way slavery is represented is quite sugarcoated," he told me, "albeit slavery was not perceived by many as the main reason for the war, at the time. There is also an entertaining love story, with a heroine I quite dislike. That Scarlett … mm, had I met her in my killing years, I would have drained her with pleasure… such petty, egotistical emotions… Her sense of family is praiseworthy, however, a redeeming factor…"

…..***….

I am not concentrating on the book at all. I am still thinking of my conversation with Carmen and my mind goes back to New York, on a certain day when, not telling anybody, not even Edward, I visited a Synagogue. I suppose I was saying goodbye to the religion of my fathers, well, mothers, since our heritage is matrilineal. I was not raised religious, but for very few basics, and now I was in for the ultimate betrayal: due to what I had decided, I would never have a child of my own. However, I was not lying to Rosalie when I told her I didn't want to have children, hostages to the cruelty of this world. In that Synagogue I cried for a long time, but then I looked into the depth of my heart. I cannot live without Edward, and that is certainly the main reason, but I also feel… I feel that in encountering him and what is now his family, our family, I have met real heroes. They are a little bright light in the dark and bloody universe vampires inhabit. Somehow, I think that I can strengthen that light, even if I don't know how, yet. I asked God to forgive me then, if I was not following the path of an obedient Jewish woman. I would try to do something good for mankind, and for vampires too, if He would help me. When I left the Temple, I was in peace.

A high wind has risen, therefore I don't hear the knocking, for a while. Yes, there is somebody here. I look through the glass pane, surprised. But compassion makes me open the door.

Endnotes

Guess who is at the door?

Sigh, I have to acknowledge it. The sequel is not going to get the number of reviews The Parachutist got, despite the number of hits. Well, I did my best with this story but – as my mother used to say – _Even__the__most__beautiful__woman__on__Earth__cannot__give__but__what__she__has__…_

Till the end of the '50s a woman would not wear trousers in my country, unless it was for skiing, mountain climbing and riding. Other uses were not deemed proper. Audiences gaped at Katherine Hepburn outfits.

I was in doubt about the Alaskan coven's surname, albeit I needed to give them one. In many stories they are called Denali, as in Tanya Denali etc. but, in 1947 the Park was still called McKinley… Eventually I decided to go with the majority and call them Denali too. It simplifies things. After all, it is a local Indian name that they could have adopted before the Park was renamed.

I am sure most of you know it, anyway Alaskawas purchased by the United States from the Russian Empire in 1867, by a ratified treaty.

"… _irregular__and__fantastically__intricate,__with__an__almost__hallucinatory__power_…" – I lifted the sentence right from Wikipedia, because it describes perfectly Gaudí's work. If you don't know this great architect (and particularly the _Sagrada__Familia_ Cathedral, his masterpiece, still being hand built almost a century after his death), do google him.

Why yes, Bella is reading 'Gone with the wind'. It was published in Italy in 1941 as '_Via__col__vento__'__,_ but she had not read it at the time, nor seen the film. Do you agree with Jasper's assessment? I don't see him as a great fan of novels, much preferring history books, but I am sure that Margaret Mitchell's story appealed to his curiosity.


	19. Chapter 19  Frenzied

**Parachutist 2 – Our New World**

Chapter 19 - Frenzied

A/N Raum has started to post her great new story, "An Italian Winter" with a bitter and compelling Darkward. Don't miss it! It is here on ff net

This week I'll start posting my new story "The Pilgrimage" on Twilighted net. You can favorite me there or wait for it on fanfiction net. It will come here too, in due time.

_Previously (Bella's PoV)_

_A high wind has risen, therefore I don't hear the knocking, for a while. Yes, there is somebody at the door. I look through the glass pane, surprised. But compassion makes me open the door._

_(A few hours before…..)_

**No PoV**

_Ma chanteuse, my singer, my singer. I found her at last… . Must be mine, will be mine … Fucking hell, I had to run away, or I would have tried to take her there and then, and the males protecting her would have ripped me apart… . Mon Dieu her smell, her smell, intoxicating, worth being destroyed for, maybe, but only after I have had her and her blood, not before. How can I leave now? I won't. But, I need to find her alone, unprotected… . Once I have her, I know that she will do whatever I want, she will give me her body first and then her life, gladly, lost in pleasure, it has always been so…_

"Who is there?" Yves turns, snarling. But it's only Irina, not a threat. Maybe… an ally, if he can manipulate her.

Eventually he does it to perfection; after all, he has tuned seduction to a fine art and Irina, already smitten, has not a chance. He confesses that, from the moment he saw that girl, he has craved her blood like a drug addict craves opium.

He explains that he has another compelling reason to go away immediately now, to really go away. Irina must understand that he was not seriously leaving her, he was just jealous of her commitment to her sisters and their choices. She is his mate, he knows it, he feels it, but how can they be eternally together with this big dietary difference between them… Yves will not deviate from tradition, he said that from day one… look at Eleazar, a prince among vampires, henpecked, emasculated by his stupid wife… By threatening to leave he had hoped that Irina would have followed him…. He is caressing her, by now, and she is melting in his arms.

But things have changed for the worst, Ives continues, because he has found his demon, his singer, so he **must** go away. Maybe he'll leave North America altogether, as he doesn't think he can restrain himself. But, if he goes after the human, the other males and even the females will either thwart him or seek revenge… He wants the girl. It is a powerful obsession, he easily acknowledges it, but surely he'll forget her once he is done. After all, she is just an inconsequential human with a very special blood... a blood made for him.

Irina is completely lost, at this point. She only sees that she has a chance to keep Yves, when she thought she had lost him. For him she'll betray everything she holds dear: she will take the girl and bring her to him. She knows that he will have sexual intercourse with his victim before he drains her; this is the incubus' way. She did the same, so many years ago. Jealousy will not trouble her, she is sure, because what she and her lover have, and what they will have after she has done this for him, will be so much more…

So a plan is formed. Irina will seek an opportunity to find her target alone and Yves, whom everybody thinks has gone away, will wait for her in a certain place she knows of. When all is finished, they will leave together for Canada, unsuspected…

_(Present time)_

**Edward**

Home at last. It took too long. Jeeps might be convenient for the unpaved Alaskan roads but they are really too slow… My senses tell me there is nobody here: I miss the beloved heartbeat that is better than music to me. Strange. Are they still visiting the Denalis? Rosalie is surprised and she too finds it strange. On the sofa's side table there is an empty glass of milk and a half eaten sandwich, which means that Bella was here recently and has not finished her repast. Hell, there is also the gramophone still going, a scraping sound. I stop it, and I am immediately relieved, because I hear that somebody is arriving. But, when Carlisle, Emmett and Esme come in, Bella is not with them. Of course, they went hunting… Shit, they left her alone… of all the stupid things… Where is she? This is supposed to be a safe place, but I am panicking, horrible images came to my mind, one worse than the other. Christ, if something happened to her…

Something is ringing, ringing …

I get to the radio-phone in less than a second. A lot of statics, then a voice:

"Edward, Alice here. Is Bella home?"

Connections are not very secure; anybody working on the switches could be listening, so my answer is guarded and apparently calm. Inside I am a mess since, on hearing my sister's voice, I had hoped that she had found Bella.

"No, not here, no.…"

Like me Alice is aware of the problem, we don't want to raise any alarm among the humans.

"I am sorry Edward, we were in the middle of a forest, it took a lot of time to find a place with a phone, a hunters' lodge…" Then, at vampire speed: "I have Seen Irina running away with her. Bella seemed to be sleeping or... unconscious."

I reply at the same speed:

"Kidnapped?" Despair washes over me.

"Edward, try to stay calm. Call the Denalis, maybe they know something. We are rushing home, but we are quite far…I am trying to See more."

Carlisle calls the Denali residence while I fret. Eleazar answers and no, they have not seen Bella, and Irina seems to have disappeared. We decide to meet midway and try to understand the situation.

Nobody knows what happened and why Irina has taken Bella. I see only a great puzzlement in their minds. They had thought she had gone away because she was heartbroken and wanted to be alone for a while, after her lover left her. At the beginning, Kate even refuses to believe what Alice has Seen. There is nothing useful in Tanya's head either. She is thinking about Irina and what I see is just a lot of sex. Her sister, herself and another vampire that she is calling Yves in her mind. Oh, right, the one who had a relationship with her sister, I understand. Well, there is nothing for it, sometimes they had threesomes, evidently. I retreat and shut her off, embarrassed.

This is not useful at all. Barely containing my fury, I propose that we scout the surroundings. There is no time to lose, we must find her. We choose different directions and start moving. Alice will See us and join us later with Jasper, when they'll be near enough. The range of my mind reading should let me know if somebody discovers anything.

I continue running, balancing between keeping contact with the others' minds and looking around, trying to find a trace of Bella's unique scent. Or Irina's, but I have never met her, so I won't be sure, if I encounter another vampire's scent. I feel so helpless, but I forbid myself to imagine the worst, I have to stay calm, collected…

"_Wait,__ Edward,__ wait__…"_ Tanya's inner voice reaches me. She must have followed my tracks. Obviously I am too fast for her but, maybe she knows something; she knows Irina better than anybody, surely, so I slow down. I have now reached a secluded spot, surrounded by rocks. I wanted to climb on one of them to see farther away, getting an idea of the grounds, but I wait for her until she appears.

And now…I see Bella in her mind… a dilapidated cabin… Oh yes, Tanya knows this place and thinks Bella is there. My voice, breathless:

"Tanya, I believe you know where she might be, don't you? In a cabin somewhere. Where?"

"All in due time, sweet boy."

She looks triumphant. What the hell is she thinking?

_Oh no, you fucking bitch, no._

The lust in her brain is obliterating everything else. I see myself naked and aroused, albeit my real body does not correspond to her fantasy. Hell, does she think I am hung like a horse? Disgusting. I want to read her, so I wade in all the same but… nothing… Deep inside I just perceive a tiny black whirlwind, where she is concealing, damn her, the information I need to see. How does she do it? Where did she learn this trick?

I am so angry that I could rip her apart, and it must be showing on my face, because she says:

"Oh yes, you can kill me, but if you do you'll never find Bella. If, on the contrary… you show me some love…"

"I might not find her, but everybody is searching for her," I object. "She will be found."

"Are you ready to bet on it?"

No, I can't risk it and I want to be on my way. I can't kill Tanya, obviously. I need the information she has. Does it mean that I have to fuck her? I can't believe I am the victim of sexual blackmail. God, what shall I do? There is no time, no time to plead, to find another way to make her spill her secrets. Shall I? Can I? I was sure I was never going to be unfaithful to my wife, and now I have to be. Even if I am forced to, the fact remains. But I need to find Bella, NOW. I am sure that Irina's kidnapping was not a prank, that there is malicious intent behind it. Dammit, has she stopped being a vegetarian?

And so I nod, and so, with a flat voice, I ask where she wants me.

"Just lie down on that moss, pretty boy, I promise you'll not be sorry." _'__I __bet__ your __pitiful__ human __wife __has__ never __made __you__ happy__ like __I__'__ll __make __you.__ How __can__ she?__' _the deluded hussy adds in her mind.

Obviously, I am limp like a wet rag. Despite the fact that I joked about it with Bella a long time ago, I am no gigolo. I can't rise to the occasion like they do, even with women they don't like or desire. It is the money that makes them hard. My eyes tell me that Tanya is beautiful, but she does nothing for me. No matter, because now I must perform. I must. In the meanwhile, she has knelt at my side, and is unbuttoning my pants.

"Mm, nice, let me help with that," she says, putting her hands on me. "You think you don't want me, you think you are doing this only because I know where Bella is, but I'll make you forget her. I'll make you forget your name… "

She is still dressed but she projects her fantasies to me. Naked and acting like a porn queen, like the whores entertaining special clients in the _Casino_ of _Via_ della _Stoppa_. Only, they were faking their lust and she is not… I try to shut her out, to shut everything out. Bella, only Bella can arouse me. Memories, memories… The first time she caressed my length with her soft, warm hands… the first time I was in her mouth… . Hideously, I am using her so that I can better betray her. And my traitorous body is finally responding. Males are animals and so am I, an animal, after all. Will my love ever forgive me? I know that I would rather die than know she submitted to another man for my sake. And yet, I fear that she would… for me.

Tanya is humming with pleasure and can barely contain her anticipation, when suddenly she cries aloud and her hands are off my body. Then I hear a harsh ripping sound. I open my eyes and rise up, refastening my pants. Rosalie and Carmen are holding her tight. Bewildered, I see that Rosalie has detached Tanya's right arm and is collaring her, while Carmen holds her other arm in a grip.

"Listen, bitch," Rosalie says. "This is rape and we don't like it."

"Why are you doing this to me? I was not raping anybody, how can you rape a male? Edward was willing…" Tanya wails.

"Nice try, _puta,_ but we have heard enough," adds Carmen. "Evidently, you were so distracted that you didn't hear us approaching."

I didn't either. They are marvelous, my sister and her companion, like ancient war goddesses, glorious in their wrath. I know Rose's past, but evidently Carmen also has personal reasons to hate rape or sexual blackmail. Now Rosalie is speaking again.

"Tanya, you think you know where Bella is and you will tell Edward. You came between a mated couple, and they are practically family to you. Plus, you used blackmail to get your talons on him. You deserve the worst."

Tanya is in great pain, paler than vampires normally are, but there is a stubborn expression on her face. Rose will have nothing of it.

"If you don't tell immediately what you know, you can kiss **both** your arms goodbye. I am taking the other off and burning them. You might be able to re-grow your missing limbs, maybe. But it will take a lot of time …" In her minds I see that my sister is prepared to do it and Carmen would assist her. The Alaskan vampire sags, all fight gone from her.

"Northwest from here, there is an abandoned miners' camp… Irina and I… had some fun with the last caretakers before the owners declared it unproductive… It was our secret place."

From her mind I get the directions to find it. I am running

Endnotes

Let me hear from you, please. A few readers sent me a review for the first time. Thank you, guys! And many thanks to the "faithful" ones too.

Yes, Bella is Yves' singer (remember, she was **not** this Edward's singer). Being an incubus and a traditional vampire, the Canadian desires to drain her during sexual intercourse, as stated in chapter 16.

Coming to Edward, sexual harassment of a male is an interesting subject. Some people still find it funny (bring it on, the more the better, they think), but it is tragic like the opposite, really, and to think otherwise is sexist.

Is Rosalie ripping off Tania's arm something of an exaggeration? I don't think so. If you are restraining a vampire and don't want any retaliation, you'd better make sure he/she is incapacitated.


	20. Chapter 20  Fear

**Parachutist 2 – Our New World**

Chapter 20 - Fear

**Warning****:** this chapter contains attempted rape.

As usual the images will be posted on the Twilighted forums as soon as the chapter is up.

http:/www(.)twilighted(.)net/forum/viewtopic(.)php?f=33&t=17854

_Previously_

"_Northwest of here, there is an abandoned miners' camp… Irina and I… had some fun with the last caretakers before the owners declared it unproductive … It was our secret place."_

**No PoV**

Inside the cabin, with Irina keeping watch outside, Yves is frustrated and almost mad with desire and blood lust. If he wasn't used to control himself – when he was working for the Volturi he had to wait, so that the women reached Volterra still alive and well - he would have drained the human by now.

Because his talent is not having any effect on her, or maybe impatience and lust are dulling it. He sometimes visualized in his mind how it worked: it was like a vine, with flowered tendrils extending from him to his targets and enveloping them. He cannot see the vines now. They encounter a slippery wall and, finding no purchase, they wilt and die. He feels it. Normally it was not even necessary for him to really speak, his gift worked on women who didn't know the language he was using. It was his beauty, the tone of his voice, the force of his eyes, the language of his body that enraptured them.

None of this, now. This demoness seems impervious to his lures and looks at him with fearless eyes.

"They will kill you, you know," she says. "My husband will kill you, my mother and my brothers will kill you, my sisters will kill you. They'll dismember you, taking turns, and set fire to the pieces. My father will not kill you, maybe, but he'll let them do it. Have no doubts: you will pay for this.

"Why don't you let me be and go away? I can stay here, they'll find me. Take Irina and go, otherwise my family will take revenge on her too."

While she speaks waves of her tantalizing scent engulf him. She is not aroused, of course, so there is one smell that is missing. No matter, he will have her anyway. He never had to force a woman before, there was no need, and he had even thought to have Irina join them. The pleasure would have been exquisite and maybe, maybe Irina would have craved her blood too, once he started drinking. He doubts he would have allowed it, though, Bella's blood is all for him. In any case, given the situation, Irina will remain outside.

The idea of raping the human has merits, however. If he can't experience her arousal and her pleasure, then he will experience her fear, pain and rage, a heady taste. He'll teach her submission.

Defiant, she is standing in front of him, but a small cuff is enough to send her tumbling down. Mm, too strong maybe, she must be hurting… who cares, she will soon be dead anyway. Yves rips open her garments… she is petite, but has a well rounded body… Her brown eyes, now full of hate, are boring into his face… She doesn't fight, doesn't move, she surely knows that to resist a vampire is inane. Then, while he is leaning over her, she spits on his face. _Sale__ pute!_ Oh, she'll pay for this too… He'll take her with no restraint.

**Edward**

I sense Alice, pleading for me to stop. It is essential that I wait for her, she screams in my head. We need to plan the rescue, she says, Irina didn't do this by herself. Behind Alice I feel Kate and Jasper approaching too, but my sister is flying… I am torn, but eventually I wait for her.

Now I see what she has Seen. Bella is not alone in the cabin, there is a man with her or, better, a male vampire. I recognize him because I have seen him in Tanya's head. He is Ives, Irina's lover. Of all the sick games… it is unbelievable! Did Irina really kidnap Bella for… for Yves? Why? I fear I know why.

Alice reaches me.

"Edward, Irina is standing guard. You'll have no problems taking her down, but Yves will hear, and he might hasten the kill."

She does not want me to see more, but she can't help herself or deflect me, because she too is panicking. Image after image, Bella dead, white as snow, whiter than me… No, living, but hurt…

"We have to send Kate in advance…" Alice continues, "she will be here in a minute. Irina won't think her sister could hurt her, she will not alert Yves, it is our only chance…" and, in her mind, I see Kate approaching Irina, making like she is about to embrace her… and using her power on her till she falls on the ground.

Then, another vision shatters me. Bella, half naked, overpowered, and the monster unfastening his pants…He is going to rape her.

And yet, and yet… if he doesn't kill her immediately… it will give us time to save her from death. I can't lose her, we can't lose each other, whatever the price we have to pay. No, that Bella has to pay… my feelings are irrelevant. But, will she ever forgive men, any man, myself included, if she has to succumb to male brutality?

I feel I am but a step from insanity. I. Will. Not. Think. About. It. Now. I have to keep myself in check, I must.

"Edward, it might not happen," Alice whispers, and then Jasper is with us and Kate passes us in a blur, her mind contorted by shame and anguish for what Irina has done. We run after her… I know we are almost there…

**Bella**

I can't believe I have escaped the Nazis - and what they sometimes did to Jewish women before killing them – only to end up like this… the monster is going to rape me before he drains me… I know Edward will find him in whatever hole he crawls and destroy him. But then, if I am gone, he too will seek his death... I am trembling now; fear is seeping all over me. How to prevent it? My love should not die, his passionate heart, his beautiful mind, his wonderful music, his gorgeous body should grace this Earth forever. Please God have pity on me… this should not happen, help me, help us, help us….

I spit on his face and he reacts violently, so that I fall down, hard. Oh Lord, if only I could be given vampire strength for one second I would annihilate him, such is my rage, overcoming even my fear. Wait, something is passing through me, reaching outside… strange but… useless, useless, because he has uncovered himself and now his dirty hands are opening my legs…I brace myself: at least this will give Edward time to arrive here, maybe. I am sure he is coming for me. I'll not cry, I'll not thrash around, I'll not give Yves this satisfaction, I'll be like stone… I close my lids…

But, nothing happens… he is cursing, cursing. I open my eyes and see that his penis is flaccid…

**No POV**

Impotent… Never, never had such thing happened to him before... what has _la_ _fotue__sorciére_done to him? She has risen on her knees and again she is looking at him, an unreadable expression on her face, then she murmurs a word that Yves catches only due to his vampire hearing:

"_Il__ Faraone_..."

What the hell does she mean, he wonders, what is this mumbo jumbo? Can she cast spells? Human spells that work on vampires? The hate he feels for her is almost undoing him... she will die now, but her death should not be quick. She must pay, she must suffer and her pain will be like a balm, to be enjoyed along her delicious blood.

However, he fears that the moment his teeth will pierce her skin an unquenchable thirst will take over and he'll drain her in seconds. So, no teeth… at first. He will play and he will savor. Again he cuffs her and she falls. Then, crouching over her, he crisscrosses her breasts with his hard nail and watches the blood leaking out, singing to him, engulfing him… Ives laps the liqueur that was made for him and for him only, and the world disappears…

**Edward**

I finally see a pitiful cluster of crumbling shacks and ruined cabins. It must be here. We are advancing as noiselessly as we can. In Kate's mind I see her approaching her sister. Irina's face is a mask of guilt and pain. She has betrayed all that her coven stands for and whatever is happening inside one of the cabins does not please her. She is jealous of her demonic lover, damn her. I see her sister's hand reach for her and she collapses; silently, thank God. Kate continues slapping her until she lies still, stunned into oblivion for a while. Good.

Now, where are they? Alice points at one of the cabins, then signals for Jasper to stop and indicates he has to go where Kate and Irina are.

"_Jasper__ will__ restrain __her__ when__ she__ recovers__ and __protect __Kate,_" she tells me in her mind_,__ "__he...__he__ can__'__t __come __with __us ,__ there__ is __blood.__ Edward,__ don__'__t__ fret,__ I__ See__ her__still __alive! __Yves__ is__… __distracted.__ Let__'__s__ go.__"_

Now I can finally read Yves' mind; I am near enough even if I don't know him. I see clearly why he is distracted. The bastard is lapping the blood form the wounds he has caused, marring my wife's beautiful breasts. But, bloodlust is rising inside him, time is almost over.

Communicating silently, Alice and I set our plan. The cabin's wooden walls seem rickety enough, I can…

**No POV**

A loud crash penetrates Yves' dimmed awareness. Suddenly the cabin is missing two walls. He is so far gone in pleasure that his reflexes are slow. There is a blur, a movement and too late he realizes that his prey is no more under him. His singer has gone. Roaring, he rises, determined to find her again, when somebody takes him from behind and hurls him outside. He wants to run after the blood that owns him but, there is an angry vampire blocking his path, teeth bared and very black eyes.

**Edward**

I have to fight Ives now and I long to destroy him but, I am worried for Bella. She was bleeding… Alice thoughts reach me:

"_Don__'__t __worry, __Edward.__I__ have__ her__ and__ I __am__ not__ breathing. __I__can__ resist,__ I__'__ll__ keep __her__ safe__ for__ you.__"_ Bless her, my loving, brave sister.

I can concentrate on Yves with no distraction, then. He knows he can't escape me and is crouching, waiting for my assault. He also knows, like I do, that only one of us will walk away from here.

Endnotes

Well, yes, cliff hanger. This chapter was packed enough. Reviews?

You might have noticed that Edward loves Bella so much that he is even determined to accept that Yves rapes her, provided it gives him time to save her from death. It may seem disconcerting, but my Edward is different from canon Edward. Both he and Bella have survived a war where horrible things were happening all the time (in Italy we coined the adjective_marocchinate,_referred to women who were raped by North African soldiers who were part of the Allied Army that was liberating Italy. These women were so many that eventually they were granted by special law a war-victim pension). Therefore in my story Edward (and Bella too), are more robust psychologically than their canon counterparts. So Edward is able to suppress his own feelings, only worried by the trauma she might experience. And she has similar thoughts.

_**Il**__** Faraone**_ = Pharaoh. This somewhat obscure reference relates to a memory of her Bible (or, better, Tanakh) reading, which flashed in Bella's mind when she realized that, maybe as a response to her prayer, Yves was unable to force her sexually. More than once Abraham's beautiful wife, Sarai, was coveted by the kings of the countries they were passing through. One of them was the Pharaoh of Egypt. To protect himself and his people, Abraham repeatedly introduced her as his sister, not his wife - thus preventing the murder of himself and his tribe. Sarai was then brought to the kings' chambers but, every time, each sovereign was unable to have intercourse with her.(The Bible speaks of a great plague descending on the Kings, modern commentaries interpret it as impotence). Suspecting some god's intervention they eventually returned Sarai to her husband and let them go. Yves, of course, doesn't have any religious thoughts about his predicament and just wants to punish her. Personally, I think that the 'miracle' is due to Bella' shield but, who gave her this talent?

In theory Yves should have heard the other vampires approaching, but of course Bella's blood distracted him.

**French**** expletives**_:__sale__ pute_ = dirty whore;_ fotue __sorciére_ = fucking witch.


	21. Chapter 21 Fight

**Parac****hutist2 – Our New World**

Chapter 21 - Fight

A/N As usual, the images for this chapter are on the thread at Twilighted net

http:/www(.)twilighted(.)net/forum/viewtopic(.)php?f=33&t=17854

_Previously (Edward's PoV)_

_I can concentrate on Yves with no distraction, then. He knows he can't escape me and is crouching, waiting for my assault. He also knows, like I do, that only one of us will walk away from here._

**No PoV**

"Jasper, go, look for Carlisle and Emmett," Alice says loudly, knowing that her husband, not visible, can still hear her. "They are just a few miles from here, southwest. You'll find them. I think we all need help here. And Bella needs a doctor, urgently."

Alice's throat burns, so once more she has to stop breathing. She is frightened, because the outcome of the fight between Edward and Yves isn't clear. Too many variables. She could join her brother but, when approaching the cabin, she smelled the presence of predators of the four legged variety not too far away, as wilderness has reclaimed the abandoned camp. She can't leave Bella alone and defenseless, the smell of her blood is too attractive.

Plus, Alice is the second line of defense, in case, God forbid, Yves escapes Edward. A snippet of a vision told her that it could happen. Previously she Saw Irina fighting like a hell cat to reach her lover, until Jasper subdued her and finally her sister had to stun her again. But Kate hates what she had to do and might lose her determination, now that Jasper has gone. Maybe to send him away was a mistake, but with Bella's blood spilled… Too many things could change: some of the images she is Seeing are not reassuring…

In the tiny clearing in front of the collapsed hut, Edward is alone with his enemy. He went directly for Yves' throat, but had managed to bite off only a small chunk of it when the Canadian clawed at his eyes. Edward saw the intention, but could only back down…

So, there is a sort of impasse, now.

They are circling around each other, growling, feinting and waiting for the right moment to strike. Obviously Yves has some experience with fighting; you don't survive a long time as an immortal if you don't. In his mind Edward can see the red lust that Bella's veins represent for him and the desperate need to overcome… bypass… obliterate the vampire that is making it impossible for him to reach his singer again. Yves can't see Bella but, she must be near, he still smells the unique scent of her blood. Vampires' minds are vast, however, so he is also trying to strategize…

But it is to no avail, because before he can come up with a plan, Edward jumps on him, the collision resonating loudly. He hurls Yves's body through the air, making him land flat on his belly. Keeping the Canadian down with a hard knee on his back, Edward restrains his arms and tries to bite a hand off. Reacting to the sharp pain and collecting all his strength, Yves is able to free himself, however, and stand up. He bumps his head on Edward's chest while at the same time kicking his knee. It is so fast that Edward reflexes are not good enough this time. He falls and bangs his head on a rock protruding from the ground. The impact pulverizes the stone, but he experiences a moment of blankness.

"Edward!" Alice cries. She has Seen it happening and is torn. Should she leave Bella alone for a moment? Where the hell are Carlisle and Emmett? Bella has regained her senses in the meanwhile and has heard the loud noises coming from below with growing concern. Why is Edward not with her? Alice's cry makes her spring up and run down the slope. Her sister could stop her easily, but she doesn't, lost in a vision.

Triumphant, Yves is crouching over his adversary, battering his head on the hard soil and preparing to twist it, when he sees his singer in front of him, still semi-nude and blood smeared… A moment of distraction is all that Edward needs. He frees himself and throws Yves against a tree, which is uprooted by the impact.

Now, no more mistakes. Edward grabs his enemy's body, keeping it upright, then his knee jerks on his crotch and, when the Canadian folds, he is finally able to rip one of his arms off. Then the other follows and finally Yves is at his mercy, disabled, his mind a chaos of hate and despair.

He tries to kick, but Edward avoids him easily. Keeping him down and grasping his head, he is about to finish him off, but the fact that Bella is in the small clearing now, a hand covering her mouth, her eyes big as saucers, gives him pause_. 'She shouldn't see me like this, doing this,'_ he thinks.

Then another thought reaches him. Yves is about to plead for his life, telling him that Bella was his singer, impossible to resist, but if he spares him now, he'll run to Canada with Irina and never return… From something Emmett told him, Edward knows about singers and the implacable call of their blood on vampires. But the bastard wanted to do so much more to Bella than drain her… Just remembering what he has seen in Alice's mind twists his insides… and still he hesitates… '_but for the grace of God I could be like him… Can I believe what he is telling me?_' he asks himself.

No, he can't, because behind the forefront of Yves' mind, as the Canadian is in too much pain to protect his secrets, there is a promise_: 'I'll be back when you never expect it, damn you.'_

A second after, Yves' head is rolling on the ground.

**Edward**

"I'll take care of it, give me your lighter and go to her." Alice has joined me. Again, as it happened in Italy three years ago, my trusted Zippo is going to torch a vampire. But Bella is my priority now.

She has collapsed again, the horror of what she has seen me doing must have been too much for her. I gather her in my arms. Her skin is cold and clammy, she is practically naked. I take off my jacket and cover her with it. Her poor feet are scraped, she ran to me barefoot. Still, she is alive and doesn't seem too badly hurt. Not bleeding anymore. The pain she must have experienced inside is another matter. Alone in the hands of a monster… and married to another. While the aromatic smell of the bonfire that is now Yves pervades the air, I rock her gently, sadness and self doubt crushing my spirit. Once again, as on Tiber Island, she has seen what vampires are, what a vampire can do. How is it possible for her to choose this life?

My sick musings are interrupted by the arrival of three members of our family: Jasper, with Carlisle and Emmett. Alice quickly tells them what passed. Vaguely I hear that she is also aware of what happened between Tanya and me and of Rose and Carmen's intervention. Not important, right now.

"Carlisle, come here, please." I call to my father anxiously, "I need to know how Bella is, if there something wrong with her that I can't see."

He kneels near Bella and checks her vitals. I know that, while he is obliged to use medical implements to keep the charade, he can very well do without, as his senses are better than any instrument.

"Apart from the cuts, that I need to treat as soon as we are at home, she is well enough, considering, but she should be kept warm and stay in bed…" he says to my relief. Bella opens her eyes, sees him, smiles, than realizes I am holding her and turns toward me. Somehow we both find it difficult to speak. I explore her face, fearing to see the revulsion she must surely feel. But I see only a great exhaustion. Her eyes are closing again.

I am preparing to run home, anything else can wait, when a high scream pierces the air.

"Yves, Yves…" Irina has escaped her sister, who probably had not the courage to stun her again, and she is here, her eyes scanning desperately the area. Kate has followed her. The pile of ashes still smoking and the fact that she can see only us Cullens are answer enough to Irina's mental questions. She falls on her knees and starts rocking right and left, clutching her stomach. Nobody knows exactly what to do, when she abruptly rises.

"Who killed him, who..?"As nobody answers her, she looks around until her gaze stops on Bella.

"It is your fault," she hisses, preparing to attack my wife.

Faster than me, hampered by having Bella in my arms, Carlisle, the gentle, humanitarian vampire, reaches her, slapping her face with such strength that she falls. Then he hovers over her supine body. His voice is cold and hard when he speaks:

"Yes, Irina, those are the ashes of Yves, who tried to torture and drain Edward's mate. With your help. Your remains should join his, do you realize that? If Edward claims your life, I won't interfere. It is his right."

"No," Kate wails, almost incoherent in her anguish, "Edward, Carlisle, have pity. Irina was not herself… It was Yves, his power on her…

My brothers have taken Irina and are keeping her upright. I realize I have only to say a word… I long to say it, her death a balm for my torn spirit…

Bella opens her eyes:

"Edward, let her be. Take me home, now," my angel whispers.

…***…

Back at the house things move fast. Carlisle examines Bella, with a silent question in his mind '_Did he abuse her sexually? She doesn't seem hurt that way_. At vampire speed I tell him I that don't know and I am not asking. That is for her to tell me, in her own time. I saw Alice's vision, but not its conclusion. I also saw her dead, but she is very much alive. So maybe it never happened.

My father cleans and bandages Bella's wounds, pronouncing them on the mend already, no infection. Some scars will remain, though. '_Of course when she is changed they'll vanish_,' he thinks. But, will she want the change now? The future I was both dreading and desiring is blurred again in my mind, I don't know what to think, what to hope…

Esme, who was the first to come back home and has been fretting near the radio-phone all this time, charged with keeping everybody on touch in case it was needed, reheats a soup, which I almost force Bella to eat. Then my wife is allowed to sleep. We have not spoken, apart for a few words of practical nature. I would like to curl up on the bed with her, for as long as I am allowed it, until she sends the monster away… but I need to speak with the others, as we must compare notes, to make a sense of all that has happened.

Rosalie also came back and, when I see her, I embrace her tightly for what she has done for me, preventing the unspeakable betrayal of my wife that I was about to commit. Gruffly, she gives me a shy smile, and then she tells us that, after I left for the miners' camp, Eleazar and Kate found them. The latter, as I know, followed me with the intention of stopping her sister, while Eleazar decided to stay and take care of the armless Tanya. He knows how to help the reattaching of a detached limb, a painful process. Accordingly, he and Carmen took Tanya to the Denali residence.

"You have spared Irina's life," Carlisle says to me. "I am proud of you."

"I wanted her dead," I admit, "it was Bella's decision, not mine."

"You have been enormously wronged by Tanya too," Carlisle continues, "her behavior was despicable, and you could avenge yourself on her, but I pity Kate. She has been steadfast and brave, honoring the friendship between our two covens….

"Don't worry, Father, I will not do anything to her. Only, I don't want to see the two damn sisters' faces anymore… or at least for a long, very long time," is my firm answer. I am still very angry.

"Me neither, I have to say. But… I feel I have to assist with Tanya's recovery… and make sure that we don't have to expect further nasty surprises from their side."

Carlisle leaves shortly after that, taking Emmett and Jasper with him, just in case. I go back to my room, dreading the moment Bella will open her eyes. What will I tell her, what will she tell me?

Endnotes: 

Yes, they should have a good talk now. What do you think their state of mind will be?

It is really a pity that cell phones had not yet been invented, isn't it? Present day Cullens have it so easy, but in 1947 communications were hard…

Due to the situation's unpredictability, Alice's visions precede the actual events only by moments, as decisions are made. When Bella rushed where Edward and Yves were fighting, Alice Saw that her arrival would determine the outcome positively and let her go.

I have realized that, without exactly choosing it, those who have helped Edward are all women. Rosalie, Carmen, Alice, Kate and eventually Bella herself, distracting Yves. They just took over... and why not? Girl power for them!

An angry Carlisle is something to behold. Is his reaction OOC? I don't think so. It is in the nature of vampires to be vengeful and administer punishment. His ingrained Christianity might let him forgive, if he was the one wronged, but here the victims were Edward and Bella. You offer your own cheek, not somebody else's.


	22. Chapter 22 Aftermath

**Parachutist 2 – Our New World**

Chapter 22 – Aftermath

A/N Here on the Twilighted thread I post the images related to this chapter.

Taking off the parenthesis, here is the link

http:/www(.)twilighted(.)net/forum/viewtopic(.)php?f=33&t=17854

_Previously (Edward's PoV)_

_I go back to my room, dreading the moment Bella will open her eyes. What will I tell her, what will she tell me? _

**Edward**

Late morning. Her beautiful brown eyes flutter open. She smiles, a soft, heavenly smile, but then her expression hardens, as she starts remembering what happened to her. Christ, it is coming. I try to stall, offering the coffee and toast I brought to our room. She sips her coffee, says she is not hungry and lies down again. I recline at her side, steeling myself. However, the first thing she says surprises me.

"He didn't rape me, you know… he wanted, but was unable to…"

Unable how? I wonder. For sure, she could not have resisted him. However, it can wait.

"Love, I don't need the details or, better, tell me only what you are comfortable with."

"I had hideous thoughts, Edward, I thought that… perhaps it would give you time to come and save me. I was sure you were coming. I didn't want to die, I couldn't bear to lose you, I couldn't bear for you to lose me. I did not struggle…"

Oh my God, does she believe that I would have wanted her to fight a _vampire_? How could she_?_Plus, the same occurred to me, and I want her to know, so I tell her. Whatever this morning brings, only complete truth - complete confidence - will save us.

"When I was running to you and Alice Saw his decision, I had the same thought: it would delay him. I am a selfish monster, I wanted you alive at any cost… whatever the cost was… for you." I lower my face, ashamed, but Bella starts speaking again:

"He tried to seduce me, at first. He was speaking, speaking, telling me a lot of lies, but I warned him that you and our family would kill him and he should let me go. It was then that he decided to force me. Well, he didn't. He couldn't get it up!"

Amazed, I detect… glee in her words. A former Lure, master of seduction, failing to seduce and then rendered impotent? Is this another proof of Bella's mysterious talent, already functioning while she is still human? For Bella the explanation is another, though, because she tells me that she prayed and, afterwards, she remembered the Tanakh and how God saved Sarai from the Pharaoh's lust. She really seems unscathed by her experience, taking everything in her stride. How special she is, how strong!

"Then the filthy animal decided to have my blood. The main reason he had Irina kidnapping me for, I suppose," Bella goes on," but I was lucky in that he wanted to do it slowly. Oh how much I loathed him then! His mouth… Ugh. When… when you beheaded him it was… **wonderful**. I am sorry I passed out. I suppose it was the tension relaxing. Earlier, in the cabin, I had prayed God to give me a minute of vampire strength. I would have destroyed him myself then. I was so angry…"

I am speechless. Wonderful? Before I have the time to ponder it, she rises a little and caresses my face.

"You **were** wonderful Edward, the way you freed yourself when you were down and he thought he had won. For a dreadful moment I thought all was lost, but then you… surged like… like an avenging angel and he was defeated."

"It was because you distracted him," I murmur, confused by what she is saying, "but I hated showing you what a horror I can be."

"No, _tesoro,_ not a horror but, yes, feral. I saw a powerful body poised to strike, and it was… terrible, but also beautiful, so beautiful." She is blushing and suddenly she starts kissing me over and over and I understand that the predator I conceal inside pleases her.

Will I ever understand this woman?

"You hesitated before killing him, though," Bella continues, resting again her head on the cushion, "why?"

"He was going to plead for his life, carefully choosing the words… seduction, non sexual, can work on males too… he was a manipulator. However, in the back of his mind I saw his real intentions. He would return, if I allowed him to run. So I didn't."

"Good," Bella concludes. "And Irina?" she asks after a while.

"I am so grateful that you stopped me. The bitch did not deserve your pity, but it would have devastated Kate. The poor woman has to deal with Tanya too, with her arm ripped off by Rosalie and Carmen…"

Oops. The bewildered expression on Bella face reminds me that she knows nothing of that and that now I have to confess it. I intended to tell her, but I needed to prepare myself first. Now it is too late.

"Why did Rose and Carmen attack Tanya? I don't understand."

"Love, I am so sorry. Tanya knew or suspected, correctly in fact, where Irina might have brought you, but she would tell me the exact location only… at a price."

"What price? Oh no…" Bright girl, she gets it immediately. I am so ashamed.

"Edward, did you... did you do it?"

Now spill, animal. No lies.

"No, I didn't. But only because Rose and Carmen prevented it."

I tell her everything. How Tanya found me alone, how she was able to deflect me so I couldn't fish that one vital piece of information from her mind. And how, desperate to find her, I had given in to blackmail. I could have killed Tanya, surely, but torture the truth out of her? Not very likely.

"But, even if I acquiesced, I could not... I mean, my body was not responding, despite her efforts… so I had to think of us, of what we do… together. It is unforgivable, I know."

Bella is looking at me intently.

"Did it work?"

"Yes."

Silence. I don't have the courage to look at her.

And then she laughs. Laughs!

"I think this is the best compliment you have paid me, ever."

Floor me with a feather.

"You know what I want now?" she continues, "before you tell me more, before you over think this, before you hate yourself too much… I know I am all bandaged and you have to be extra careful, but, please, make love to me, Edward."

Madness. All the pent up feelings I have suppressed, the despair I fought against, the fear, the shame, the relief because she could have died and she didn't, and is now with me in our bed, warm and alive, if a little worse for wear, all that rushes over me. And I too want to make love to her. So much.

And so I do. Slowly, tenderly, very carefully. A basic missionary, my weight resting on my elbows, ready to stop if I feel it is too much for her. But it is not.

She sleeps again, afterwards. Watching her I marvel at my wife, at her love for me, at her strength, at her beautiful, invincible spirit.

I hear that everybody is back, the women from hunting, the men from the Denalis. And now we have visitors. Since Bella is slumbering peacefully I go downstairs.

Eleazar and Carmen are here, with their Jeep and their luggage. The couple will stay with us for the time being. One of the cottages is empty and Carlisle has put it at their disposal. It seems that they too have been disgusted by Irina and Tanya's behavior and are re-thinking the decision to live with them as a family.

The news is that Irina has shut herself in her room and does not open her door to anybody, Kate included. Tanya is repentant, on the contrary. Apparently, she never thought that her sister would seriously harm Bella or let Ives kill her. She thought that it was a prank of sexual nature, that Ives planned to seduce Bella and have a threesome with Irina, something he enjoyed, as she well knows. This would have let her free to chase me, which she did, playing with my anguish, that she thought unjustified.

Now that she realizes that Bella was destined to die she feels guilty. For the moment, she has to remain in bed, with Kate administering tiny drops of her own venom on the circular wound where arm and shoulder are reconnecting and hunting on her behalf, bringing back small animals for her consumption. She has to feed every few hours, to hasten the recovery process. Human blood would work better, but for Tanya is not an option, nor are there any hospitals nearby to obtain or steal donated blood from. However, she has told Carlisle that, once she is well, she will come here and beg for mine and Bella's forgiveness. Then she and Kate hope to convince Irina to leave Alaska for an extended period, visiting South America, where they have friends.

Well, good riddance and good bye.

When Bella awakens it is almost evening and she too wants to come downstairs. I carry her, despite her protests. She wishes to personally thank Rose and Carmen for their intervention on my behalf and she does it with no embarrassment, despite what they saved me from. Alice and Esme join them, carrying a tray with Bella's supper and it is so obvious that this is becoming an all-girls night that we males feel redundant. In the back of the lodge there is a games' room, a feature my family can never do without, and there is where Jasper and Emmett take refuge.

Carlisle and I join Eleazar in his cottage, instead. I relate some of the things that Bella told me or that happened in the past and we discuss the not so latent power she seems to have. Eleazar would like to assess her properly when she is better. If it is possible, that is, because he too thinks she is a shield, and therefore difficult for him to evaluate. In any case, what I tell him makes him think that her talent works in different ways, according to whom is threatening her. It deflects, but it actually can affect the assailant, if there is malice. On the contrary, if there is no malice, it can enhance the good qualities of her antagonist, so that his or her behavior changes…

"Extraordinary," he muses, "I understand now why I never got the impression she was talented, when I met her. It must have been her shield at work. Powerful… and she is still human!"

I think of Jasper and what happened when she cut herself… and of myself and of how I found it easy to control my strength and my thirst for her blood… Yes, extraordinary.

A few days pass. Bella and I are recuperating, she mostly physically, while for me it's psychological, of course. But her smiles, her calm, the joy we find in each other after we both feared our future had disappeared, are better than any medicine for me, should medicines work for vampires.

When her wounds are completely closed, albeit still red and sore, I decide to try my venom on them, using my tongue. When I have finished, only thin white scars remain, crisscrossing her breasts.

"I am so ugly," she complains after a shower, looking at herself in a mirror.

I bite back my logical answer, that her change will make them disappear, because I am not ready to speak of it. _Idiot_. I tell myself_.__ Idiot.__ What__ are __you__ waiting__ for?_ _Don__'__t __you__ realize__ that __she __is__ human,__ fragile,__ exposed__ to __all__ risks,__ that__ fate__ or__ intention __can__s nuff__ her __like__ a__ candle?_

But I am not ready, so what I do is to demonstrate how beautiful she is to me, how lovely her breasts still are and how arousing, and the issue looming in the background is forgotten, for a while. For how long can I stall?

After some rainy days, this morning dawned glorious, clear and sunny. We are all gathered in front of the lodge, glad that there is no one around for miles and we can bask in the sun unseen, a rare treat for us. Of all things, we are discussing soccer. I have explained the basics of the game I discovered in Italy and found so much better than, say, American football. None of the Americans, particularly Emmett, believes me, while Carmen and Eleazar support my thesis, so we decide to go and find a flat un-wooded space where we can play it. Well, in a matter of speaking, because 22 players would be needed. But we are almost enough to play _calcetto,_ says Bella, three per team, plus the doorkeepers. I will be the referee. We are looking for a round ball – I did buy a few when I was crossing Canada, with just this in mind, when Alice screams.

"Oh God, the Volturi. Irina has left, she is going to Italy, and she is going to tell them about Bella..."

Time over.

Endnotes

Yes, time is really over, and this story is rolling to its close.

What do you think of Bella's reaction? As I was saying in a previous chapter, people who survived a war either went mad or became very robust mentally.

Soccer: I explained fully why Edward likes the game in The Parachutist, Chapter 30. And forgive me if I am biased.


	23. Chapter 23  Song of Songs

**Parachutist 2 – Our New World**

Chapter 23 – Song of Songs

Chapter notes

This is the last chapter of the story. An epilogue will follow. Please see the endnotes.

_Previously (Alice speaking)_

"_Oh God, the Volturi. Irina has left, she is going to Italy, she is going to tell them about Bella..."_

**Edward**

"Alice, what else do you See?"

We have gathered anxiously around her. She keeps her eyes closed for some time, then she tells us.

In a few days Aro will call Eleazar, trying for him at the Denali residence, so he had better to let himself be found. Aro will be verifying what Irina has told him. If Eleazar is able to say that the Cullens have come to Alaska to perform in a safe environment the change of their newest member's mate, there is a good chance that the situation can be defused. A 60-70% chance, according to my sister.

"Aro is smart and will take what Irina tells him with a grain, no, a handful of salt," Carlisle observes. "He will understand that, whatever he sees in her mind, the desire for revenge will be coloring and altering her memories."

Fortunately for us, Irina doesn't know the details of mine and Bella's biographies and the length of time she has lived with me as a human, nor is she aware that we are both talented.

Now, we reason, if Eleazar is able to tell Aro when he calls that the transformation of Bella into a vampire has already occurred – as to be truthful is necessary for his own protection, in case someday Aro reads him – an intervention from the Volturi becomes less probable.

According to Alice, the Volturi's leader will call as soon as he has spoken with Irina, who will reach Volterra and be admitted to his presence in four days from now. If Bella has to become a vampire in four days… her human life must end tomorrow morning at the latest.

**Bella**

How do you react when you know that you are about to die? When you are feeling well, but must prepare yourself for three days of agony? When you know, however, that you will resurrect – and that seems almost a blasphemy to you, even if you are a Jew and not a Christian?

You are simply overwhelmed and don't know what to say, while everybody is embracing you, telling you to be brave and that they will see you on the other side. Your mother cooks for you a delicious last supper (more blasphemy?) and is saddened when you are only able to manage a few mouthfuls, because your stomach is all knotted up. Your tiny sister whispers in your ear that she has Seen that it will go well and you'll be so beautiful, so beautiful. Your blonde brother tells you that he will help you step by step, both when you will be changing and when you will be an unstable newborn, because his talent is totally at your disposal; your other brother, who has no talent but a generous unbeating heart, tries to make you laugh with his jokes. Your goddess of a sister cuffs him and tells you that she knows your strength and courage, and tries to reassure you.

Finally, your father has a long silent dialogue with your husband, and when the latter nods curtly, you understand that Carlisle has offered to do it for him, if he wanted, but Edward has confirmed that he will be up to the task.

And now you are alone with him, the immortal man who is your destiny. Everybody has left the house to give you privacy. They will be back when the moment comes.

He makes love to you with an almost unbearable slowness. Every inch of your fevered skin is attended to, so that every inch is aroused. Your nipples are hard, your core is wet, swollen and needy, your lips bruised by his kisses, and still he has not filled you like you are craving. You wonder if, like a Faust in reverse, Edward is trying to stop the fleeting moment, so that time will stand still, and death cannot come and claim you.

When he finally relents and takes you, you cry aloud, because it is almost too much, the pleasure is too much, each thrust a taste of Heaven, a heaven you are not going to see for a long time, if things go as they must.

When you are both spent, awed by the passion your husband is showing, you find the courage to express a concern you always repressed before. You ask him if, once transformed in a vampire, you'll please him still, when your skin will be cold and hard, your heart wouldn't beat and your blood wouldn't flow in your veins anymore…

**Edward**

Her question is not rhetorical and she needs an honest answer, after I have showed my reluctance to change her so many times. Therefore I pause and think about it, and suddenly I realize that her concern has no reason to be. Cold, hard? But when my siblings touch me, when Carlisle embraced me in Bologna like a father embracing the Prodigal Son, he did not feel cold and hard. They all do not feel cold and hard to me. Even Tanya hands, damn her, did not feel cold and hard while she was forcing her unwelcome attentions on my body.

I know, on the contrary, how it would feel losing Bella, since I almost lost her forever to that bastard Yves.

I know my answer now.

"No, you'll always be my Bella," I say, "you'll just be a little more durable…."

She smiles, her soul in her eyes, and I know that at dawn I'll change her with no further qualms, because this is what we are both choosing. In any case, Volturi or not Volturi.

But the night has not ended yet and I can forget myself in her again and again...

**Bella**

I must have slept a little, or maybe I passed out, drowned in the ecstasy we shared. The night is not so dark anymore, there is a little light. It is time, then. I must not show a hint of fear, lest he hesitates. He is looking at me, an unspoken question I can easily figure out.

"Yes, I am ready, Edward, do it," I say.

He smothers me with kisses, on my face, neck, throat, then pauses, exhales and his white strong teeth are exposed. I don't have the nerve to look at him anymore, because if I do, he might lose his resolve…

Now!

No, nothing is happening.

I open my eyes and I see his bewildered expression, verging on despair. Oh God, he can't bite me. Why? Is it possible that it is me? What am I doing to him? I try to reach him, to give him encouragement… we have come so far and now he**must** do what is required.

Something moves inside my brain, something like a veil, lifting, enlarging itself till it envelops him, and we are together inside it…

**Edward**

''_Mordimi, non ho paura … non avere paura, Tesoro mio … deve succedere … Oddio, ti amo tanto, staremo insieme per sempre …_

She is not speaking but, Christ, I am hearing her. For the first time I am hearing her… what happened?… She wants me to bite her, giving her death and eternal life, there are no doubts in her mind…She is not afraid and she tells me not to be afraid and that she loves me so much. Oh, yes, that's it, she has managed to lift her shield and her love is all around me. There is not an ounce of blood lust that I can feel inside, only a love which is as strong as hers…

Nothing is blocking me anymore. I lower my mouth to her neck…

A few gulps, as Carlisle instructed, then I repeat the process on other pulse points and it is done. The taste of her blood does nothing to me, my mind is elsewhere; I only worry about doing everything right…

I can't hear her now, the shield is back. I killed her, I damned her, I saved her from the Volturi, I made her mine forever, and now she will suffer and scream and it is going to destroy me, but I must be brave for her.

"_Grazie,_ _amore_," she whispers, then lies still, waiting for the flames.

Eons of time pass. Outside, Jasper is behind the door, sending his waves of calm so strongly that Bella seems to be almost in a coma. But I know she is awake and suffering, despite his help. Maybe it is not as bad as it would be without him, I hope. She has screamed very little, crying that she was burning, a furnace was consuming her, but she just whimpers and trembles, now.

Remembering when I was the one suffering, I decide to use my body as a man sized ice pack. I don my shorts for decency and cover us both with a light sheet - since occasionally Carlisle joins us to check the progress she is making. So I have Bella in my arms, giving her the maximum skin to skin contact I am capable of.

Another thing that worked was when the two vampires responsible for my metamorphosis spoke to me. Somehow, I was distracted and the pain lessened. And that is what I do, speaking and, when my speech falters and anguish is overwhelming me, even humming and singing softly to her. It seems to help, so I go on and on. Her trembling has abated a little and she is practically silent. I don't know if she hears me...Oh God, there is so little that I can do to ease her pain...

On her nightstand there are books, maybe I could also read to her… One of the volumes is an English version of the Tanakh, the Jewish Holy Scriptures, that is. I keep the volume high over my face with one hand and start reading aloud. The words I casually find seem to have been written for us…

"_Set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is strong as Death, passion as relentless as Sheol. The flash of it is a flash of fire, a flame of Yahweh himself._

_Love no flood can quench, no torrents drown. _

_Make haste, my love, be like a gazelle, a young stag, on the spice-laden mountains._

_How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are doves, behind your veil; your hair is like a flock of goats surging down Mount Gilead._

_Your teeth, a flock of sheep to be shorn when they come up from the washing. _

_Your lips are a scarlet thread and your words enchanting. Your cheeks, behind your veil, are halves of pomegranate._

_Your two breasts are two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that feed among the lilies._

_You are wholly beautiful, my beloved, and without a blemish._

_Come from Lebanon, my bride, come from Lebanon, come on your way. Look down from the heights of Amanus, from the crests of Senir and Hermon, the haunt of lions, the mountains of leopards._

_You ravish my heart, my sister, my bride, you ravish my heart with a single one of your glances, with a single link of your necklace._

_What spells lie in your love, my sister, my bride! How delicious is your love, more delicious than wine! How fragrant your perfumes, more fragrant than all spices!_

_Your lips, my intended bride, distil wild honey. Honey and milk are under your tongue; and the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon._

_You are a garden enclosed, my sister, my bride; a garden enclosed, a sealed fountain._

_Your shoots form an orchard of pomegranate trees, bearing most exquisite fruit:_

_Nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all the incense-bearing trees; myrrh and aloes, with the subtlest odors._

_Awake, north wind, come, wind of the south! Breathe over my garden, to spread its sweet smell around. Let my love come into this garden, let her taste its most exquisite fruits._

_How beautiful are your feet in their sandals, O prince's daughter! The curve of your thighs is like the curve of a necklace, work of a master hand._

_Your navel is a bowl well rounded with no lack of wine, your belly a heap of wheat surrounded with lilies._

_Your two breasts are two fawns, twins of a gazelle._

_Your neck is an ivory tower. Your eyes, the pools of Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-Rabbim. _

_Your head is held high like Carmel, and its hair is as dark as purple; a king is held captive in your tresses._

_How beautiful you are, how charming, my love, my delight!_

_I belong to my love, and her desire is for me._

_Set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is stronger than Death, passion as relentless as Sheol. The flash of it is a flash of fire, a flame of Yahweh himself._

_Love no flood can quench, no torrents drown... "_

Bella's heartbeat has gone. Perfect and unmoving, her skin alabaster, she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I dimly realize that there are more people in the room and I cover her breasts, now unmarred again, with the sheet…

_**Make haste, my love, my soul, make haste and come back to me. It is time.**_

Her eyelids flutter open…

End notes

Yes, this is the end of Our New World. From the moment I started to type Chapter One of The Parachutist I knew that the story would terminate the moment Bella opened her crimson eyes to the new world she was going to inhabit as an immortal.

A short epilogue will give us just a glimpse of what the future may bring, for her and for her beloved parachutist. Please, review. It is your last chance, almost. Dear lurkers, I hope you liked the story, even if you didn't comment. To the ones who did, my heartfelt thanks.

Eleazar needs to be truthful with Aro, even if they are separated by a continent and an ocean. Remember that Eleazar promised to make himself available if Aro needed him. It was the condition to be allowed to leave Volterra. So if he had to go back for any reason and see Aro, even years after, the lie could be exposed, if the Volturi leader touched him. Inconsequential maybe, after time had passed, but Aro would not take it well, and his trust in Eleazar would be compromised.

The first of Bella's PoVs is written in a peculiar way. Bella speaking to herself using the 'you'. It seemed right for what I was describing and it flowed well. I hope you don't find it too disconcerting.

Faust. In Goethe's tragedy, a pact between Faust and Mephistopheles requires Mephistopheles to serve Faust until the latter, in a moment of ecstasy, pleads with the fleeting moment to stay. Bella's interpretation of the episode is discordant with the established tradition.

As Eleazar surmised, Bella's talent changes according to whom is confronting her. The first uncontrollable reaction she has is to prevent Edward biting her but then, because she wants it too, her talent (let's personalize it for a moment) recognizes that Edward is acting out of love and stops blocking him. So she is able to lift her shield. Then, not only he is allowed to do the deed but also, for the first time, he hears her thoughts.

Well, Bella thinks in Italian. In crucial moments you revert to your native language. (But I made Edward translate the concepts for you). Literally, what she thinks is: _Bite__me__… __I__am__not__afraid,__don__'__t__be__afraid,__beloved__… __it__has__to__happen.__Oh__I__love__you__so__much__… __we__'__ll__be__together__forever__and__ever__… _When bitten, she says: 'thank you, Love'.

The book on Bella's nightstand is an English translation of the Tanakh - Holy Scriptures, published in 1917 by the JPS (Jewish Publication Society of America). A more modern translation was not available till the late '50s. For this reason I eventually decided to use the version of the Jerusalem Bible for the long Song of Songs' quote (I have cut some of it, though, for brevity). It is a Catholic modern translation, and the English is so much better, less full of antiquated words like in the Jewish and King James' versions. I am sure it doesn't matter, as the three texts seem to say absolutely the same things. Things that are just right to illustrate this moment, aren't they?


	24. Chapter 24  Epilogue

Parachutist 2 – Our New World

Chapter 24 – Epilogue

A/N A short epilogue, as I told you. What will Alice See of Bella and Edward's future?

As usual the images for this chapter are on the Twilighted thread. Taking off the parenthesis, here is the link.

http:/www(.)twilighted(.)net/forum/viewtopic(.)php?f=33&t=17854

**At the bottom of the chapter, after the end notes, there is a preview of my new story: The Pilgrimage: summary, list of characters and teaser.**

_Previously, on chapter 23_

_Bella's heartbeat has gone. Perfect and unmoving, her skin alabaster, she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I dimly realize that there are more people in the room and I cover her breasts, now unmarred again, with the sheet…_

**No PoV**

Alice is waiting in the silent house. She could go to her cottage but she won't, because Jasper is here and she would like to support him at least by being nearby. There is not much she can do, otherwise. Bella, Edward, Jasper… they are all suffering. But it will end. There is that: it will end. She is so attuned to her husband that she is almost feeling what he feels, taking Bella's pain on himself, calming it. Edward's voice, going on and on…Alice remembers that when she changed she was all alone, lost in the fire that coursed in her veins… but Bella has Edward, trying to reach her, to distract her. He is reciting something from the Scriptures now. Alice is not particularly religious, but she thinks it is fitting.

A vision she has had many times takes her again. Bella with red eyes, smiling. Now she and Edward are somewhere in the forest. They are hunting together and Alice admires the deadly grace with which they take down their prey. Afterwards garments are flying around and Alice quickly tries to distract herself from the vision of a very happy couple renewing their mating bond. The pain of the change will pass, the fire that is burning Bella right now will pass, but the fire of their passion will go on and on, forever.

But it is not necessary that she averts her inner eyes any longer, because what she Sees changes and then changes again, a string of vignettes moving swiftly one after the other. Bella and Edward together, in a room she does not know, a future house, evidently. They are beaming and opening a package. From it they extract a brightly colored object, thin and square: a black disk comes out… it is a record, but different from the ones she is used to. Alice suddenly knows what it is. So it is true, it will happen, Edward will be a composer, his work recorded. She's happy, so proud and happy for her brother!

Another vision. Bella is sitting at a desk. She is… she seems to be typing, but not on a typewriter. There is no paper sheet, no, there is a screen in front of her, like a TV, and what a strange keyboard! Fascinated by this new writing machine Alice has a glimpse of herself using the same device. Oh, she can't wait to have one.

The family, all together, now, watching a color TV set – she knows already that those are coming. But, how are they dressed? Alice is appalled: horrible, horrible denim trousers with bell bottoms, by God. And wearing brightly colored shirts that are nothing better than undershirts. Ugh. Over my pile of ashes, she thinks, but fears that she will eventually submit to fashion, if that will be the current one.

A new scene makes her gasp. Edward is in Court apparently, and he is… testifying? God this is dangerous, and not so far in time, as the other people, particularly the women are dressed more or less like now. When, what?

But a different vision makes her cry loud: the Volturi, as in the vision about Irina she has had previously. She has never met them in real life, thankfully, Should they know of her gift… But when she described them to Carlisle he confirmed who they were. Now they are sitting on thrones, how sickly pompous. And… Bella and Edward are in front of them, strong and proud. There is not even a hint of fear in their faces.

The image clouds and disappears because what she sees now is Bella, incredibly beautiful, opening her eyes. She flies upstairs... everything else forgotten for a while.

THE END

Endnotes

Last chance to send me a review. Please. And, to all my readers, the best Season's Greetings.

So, that's it. I might be producing future takes, but not right now. Before that, I will take you into the darkest Middle Age. The Volturi indeed, horror, death, and a passionate love story, of course. The title is The Pilgrimage, see teaser below.

In case you wonder about Edward in court, if I ever manage to write it I will be following a hint from Serendipitous. A brush with McCarthyism … we'll see if I get to do it.

As for the final vision: how powerful will Bella be, once turned? Powerful enough to bring down Aro and his coven? I do hope so, but I still have no idea.

So I am saying goodbye to my dear parachutist. It is time to write other stories. I have so many people to thank: my pre-reader Serendipitous and all the people who helped me to figure out US and Canada in the '40s: Andy, Jmolly, Sebastien Robichaud, Philadelphic and Maniac Motherland. This side of the Ocean there is my Italian pre-reader Raum, Alberto B and many patient friends. Don't miss my pre readers' stories, they are great.

**The Pilgrimage**

The story is currently being posted on Twilighted net but will come here too, in due time. There I am just Camilla, if you want to have a look already. It is up to you, going there or wait for the pilgrims to reach fanfiction net.

**Summary:** AD 1353. Europe has been ravaged by the plague, and millions died. Now the scourge has ended and religion is flourishing. To thank God for their deliverance, or to atone for the sins of their dead loved ones, many people will go on pilgrimages, either to near or far away destinations. We will follow a number of such pilgrims, willing to worship at San Marcus' shrine. But, things are not always what they seem. The handsome young monk leading them is very pale under his cowl, and he appears to be fasting all the time. Plus, all of them have secrets and very few are innocent. Will they find love or death at the end of the journey?

This is a Pre Twilight AU story. It is rather dark and there are no Edward and Bella, obviously. Feel like reading it all the same? I hope so, because I promise you a passionate love story, despite the setting. The rating is NC 17, for violence, sex and, just in one case, slash.

**Characters in The Pilgrimage**

A. Humans - The pilgrims

**Aligi:**a young pilgrim, atoning for his father's sins and with something to hide.

**Alina:** a beautiful horsewoman from Arezzo, mysteriously connected to Aligi. She will join the pilgrimage later.

**Omodeo**: an arbalester from Genoa, still mourning Fulco, the man he loved and died at Crecy.

**Bonizella:**a merchant's widow, harboring a dark secret.

**Cosimo**: a notary, who is not shy of messing with the wills entrusted to him and now is planning murder.

**Duccio** &**Baldo:** a butcher and his brother. Baldo is simpleminded and, as it is often the case, extremely perceptive.

**Guerrino**: an apothecary, who fears the vengeful ghost of a woman he wronged.

**Velia** & **Masino:**a rich woman from Montalcino, widowed twice, and her henpecked son.

**Ada**: a wet nurse, who has lost her child.

**Vanna**: a midwife, who meddles too much.

**Leonello:**a mediocre painter looking for work, with his apprentice.

**Morello**: a horse.

Other pilgrims, unnamed. Among them two embroiderers, a baker, a farrier, a beekeeper, a cheese maker….

B. Vampires

**Aro:**the "Abbot",leader of the Volturi coven, with his two "brothers":

**Marcus:**the Order of Saint Marcus' Librarian, and

**Caius:**the Order of Saint Marcus' Cellarer.

**Adso:**the monk guiding the pilgrims to Saint Marcus' Shrine. Formerly a Dominican novice, he is now a Lure for the Volturi.

**Ruby**: an attractive female. She is the Volturi's tracker.

**Dominic:** a gifted member of the Volturi Guard.

**Godenzo:**a priest turned vampire by the Volturi, with the gift of making humans sleep.(He was able to do this even when human and preaching).

**Tanya:**a gorgeous succubus.

**Irina:** her "sister".

**A****nomad:**who has something to reveal.

Other members of the Volturi coven, unnamed.

**Teaser**

From Chapter 4 – At the well

Unaware of the murderous intent one of his sheep was harboring, the monk was lost in his thoughts. He would have to convince Aligi to leave. After all, the capacity to persuade was his talent, as mind reading was Aro's, and bond detecting was Marcus' - that broken shell of a vampire**,**since he had lost his mate.

Mates… Adso had never found his and it was better so, he thought. He understood lust, had experienced it with Tanya but … love was another matter entirely. There was something intrinsically wrong with pairing the concept of vampire with the concept of one finding love. One of his teachers in Saint Peter's Monastery - a saintly old man, dead well before Adso's flight - had not been afraid of speaking to him of what could pass between a woman and a man.

"You will encounter human love among the people you'll confess and will preach to, and you'll have to understand, even if you are not going to experience it" he had said. "The God Lord doesn't despise flesh. His own Son became flesh. Therefore the sacred bond between a man and his wife comprises both the spirit and the flesh. Very often, however, the flesh prevails, and people sin. But, when there is perfect equilibrium, with no selfishness, no greed, then human love mirrors divine love. Never forget that, my son."

Adso had not spoken then, ashamed because what had bonded his mother and his father for a while had been sinful, obviously. But the lesson had stayed with him. Until the night he lost his virginity and became a vampire, that is. And what he had seen of humanity since then had dispelled every illusion of love. As for vampires, most of them were like animals. Pitiless predators, what had love to do with them? They rutted, just that. Still, some animal species mated for life, he knew it. It was a conundrum he had never solved: To murder wantonly and to love eternally seemed an impossible contradiction, as selfishness ruled murderers and true love was all about unselfishness. How could anyone make a habit of killing, and yet love another person infinitely? How could the purity of one act survive the filthy blackness of the other? It puzzled him. Oh, If only there was a way of feeding without killing...

The sun had gone for the day. It was time to lead the night prayer and tell his pilgrims to go to sleep. When Adso's pure tenor voice intoned the Compline hymn "_Te __Lucis__ Ante__ Terminum__"_ nobody joined him, for a while. Despite the constraining discipline imposed by Gregorian music on human voices - or maybe because of it – It seemed to the awed pilgrims that this was the way angels sang. Had the vampire been a mind reader, he would have found the idea extremely ironic.


End file.
